91 


•I 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

Ex  Libris 

Katharine  F.  Richmond 

and 
Henry  C.  Fall 


OLD  HOME  WEEK 


ADDRESSES, 


BY 


GOVERNOR  FRANK  W.  ROLLINS. 


19OO. 


I'RIYATI.LY  PRINTED. 


THE  RUMKORD  PRESS, 
CONCORD,  N".  H. 


F 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 
INVITATION v 

ADDRESS  AT  ROLLINSFORD i 

ADDRESS  AT  SALEM 17 

ADDRESS  AT  NORTH  WOODSTOCK       ...      29 

ADDRESS  AT  HANOVER 45 

ADDRESS  AT  CONCORD 67 

ADDRESS  AT  MONT  VERNON  .  .  .  -83 
ADDRESS  AT  NEW  IPSWICH  ....  97 
ADDRESS  AT  PORTLAND,  MAINE  .  .  .117 


INVITATION. 


Old  Home  Week  in  New  Hampshire  will  be  cele- 
brated August  nth  to  August  i8th,  1900,  and  it  gives 
me  unqualified  pleasure  to  invite  all  absent  sons  and 
daughters  of  the  State  and  all  who  have  some  time 
lived  within  its  borders,  to  return  during  that  week 
and  assist  us  in  kindling  the  fires  of  State  patriotism. 
The  busy  cities,  the  thriving  villages,  the  little  towns 
and  hamlets  among  our  smiling  hills,  will  receive  our 
visitors  with  genuine  New  Hampshire  hospitality. 
The  custom  of  observing  Old  Home  Week  was  inau- 
gurated last  year  with  complete  success.  Many  thou- 
sand of  New  Hampshire's  absent  children  returned, 
and  it  is  expected  that  the  number  will  be  greatly 
increased  this  year. 

That  Old  Home  Week  appealed  to  the  highest  senti- 
ments and  aroused  feelings  long  dormant  was  shown 
by  hundreds  of  poems,  sonnets,  songs,  and  marches 
dedicated  to  our  State,  by  historical  addresses  and 
articles  of  interest  and  value,  and  by  orations  of  great 
ability.  The  endowment  of  libraries,  the  erection  of 
public  buildings,  the  awakened  interest  in  village 
improvement  and  better  highways,  the  repurchasing  of 
the  old  homesteads  and  farms,  afford  proof  that  the 
festival  also  appealed  to  the  practical  side  of  men's 
natures. 

Absent  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Granite  State,  no 


VI  JNVITA  riON, 

matter  what  success  has  crowned  your  efforts  in  your 
adopted  home,  remember  that  the  "  precious  dust  of 
your  kindred  is  here."  No  matter  how  dark  the 
clouds  about  you,  remember  that  "  the  staid  Doric 
meeting-house  prays  for  you  yet." 

"  Which  one  of  her  own  can  a  mother  forget  ? 
My  heart  is  not  granite :  I  long  for  you  yet. 
From  my  watch-towers  of  hills  I  have  viewed  you  afar, 
Wherever  the  toils  of  humanity  are ; 
My  heart  is  not  granite  :  I  long  you  to  see  ; 
O  children,  my  children,  come  home  once  to  me !  " 

Given  at  the  Council  Chamber  in  Concord,  this  fifteenth 
day  of  June,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand 
nine  hundred,  and  of  the  Independence  of  the 
United  States  of  America  the  one  hundred  and 
twenty-fourth. 

FRANK  W.  ROLLINS, 

Governor. 


ROLLINSFORD, 

AUGUST  ll,  1900. 


OLD  HOME  WEEK  ADDRESSES 


AT  ROLLINSFORD. 

To  come  here  on  your  Old  Home  Day 
is  to  me  almost  like  coming  home,  for 
the  Rollins  family  played  a  prominent 
part  in  settling  and  building  up  this  sec- 
tion. The  name  is  well  known  all  through 
southeastern  New  Hampshire  and  up 
around  Lake  Winnipesaukee.  The  ances- 
tral home  of  the  Rollins  family  still  stands 
at  Newirigton  on  the  banks  of  the  pictur- 
esque Piscataqua,  its  goodly  acres  running 
down  to  the  sedgy  shore.  James  Rollins 
was  a  good  man,  a  good  farmer,  a  good 
citizen,  and  his  descendants  have  most  of 
them  done  him  honor.  From  Newington, 
from  this  parent  stem,  the  family  spread 
out  over  southeastern  New  Hampshire,  and 
many  came  to  this  vicinity,  my  own  imme- 
diate ancestors  among  the  number.  I 


4  OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

will  not  say  to  you,  their  neighbors  and 
friends,  that  they  were  good  citizens.  It 
is  unnecessary. 

For  the  first  one  hundred  years  of  New 
Hampshire's  history,  her  settled  borders 
did  not  extend  much  beyond  Exeter  and 
Dover.  All  the  life  and  business  of  the 
state  was  down  here  in  this  little  snug  cor- 
ner by  the  sea,  cut  up  by  quick-flowing 
tidal  rivers,  and  near  the  Massachusetts 
line.  People  did  not  care  to  venture  far 
into  the  troubled  wilderness  in  those  days, 
and  even  in  Dover,  Exeter,  and  Ports- 
mouth rifle  shots  and  scalpings  were  com- 
mon. The  history  of  those  times  is  the 
record  of  continual  warfare,  of  midnight 
attack,  of  brave  defense,  of  heroic  sacri- 
fice, and  in  all  this  your  ancestors  and  mine 
played  their  part  valiantly.  Here  was  the 
home  of  the  brave  Waldron,  of  the  VVent- 
worths,  the  Roberts,  the  Yeatons,  the  Pikes, 
the  Rickers,  the  Rollins,  the  Stackpoles, 
the  Clements,  the  Guppys,  and  many 
others. 


AT  ROLLINSFORD.  5 

I  love  to  picture  in  my  mind's  eye  the 
country  about  here  as  it  was  in  those  days. 
Often,  when  I  was  a  boy,  I  used  to  float 
down  the  Cocheco  or  Piscataqua  and  dream 
of  the  old  Indian  days.  I  used  to  imagine 
myself  one  of  the  early  settlers.  I  saw 
around  me,  as  my  boat  quietly  swung 
along  on  the  tide,  the  great,  dark  forest  trees 
bending  to  the  water's  edge.  I  peered 
keenly  to  right  and  left,  trying  to  pierce 
the  depths  for  my  lurking  enemy.  I 
glanced  hurriedly  up  each  little  creek  and 
bay  for  the  redskin's  canoe.  I  listened  for 
the  breaking  of  a  twig,  the  rasp  of  a  pad- 
dle, the  warning  cry  of  a  bird.  I  watched 
the  tree-tops  for  a  signal-smoke.  When, 
the  forests  safely  passed,  my  boat  came 
out  into  the  clear,  open  reaches  of  the 
stream,  I  imagined  myself  pursued  by  hos- 
tile war  canoes,  and  heard  the  blood-curd- 
ling yells  of  my  pursuers,  who  were,  of 
course,  always  left  far  behind  by  my  tre- 
mendous strength  and  wonderful  skill  with 
the  paddle.  Generally,  I  found  time 


6  OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

to  drop  my  paddle  for  a  moment  while  my 
trusty  rifle  laid  low  an  Indian  here  and 
there.  Sometimes  a  party  of  settlers, 
alarmed  by  the  shots,  would  come  speed- 
ing out  of  one  of  the  numerous  rivers 
which  pour  into  the  Piscataqua  (and  which 
make  it  so  fascinating  to  a  boy) ,  and,  with 
my  valiant  and  very  necessary  assistance, 
turn  the  tables  on  the  blood-thirsty  sav- 
ages, and  we  would  return  to  the  log- 
cabined  settlement  with  canoe  loads  of 
tightly-bound  warriors,  grinning  diaboli- 
cally through  their  war-paint.  But  these 
were  the  dreams  of  long  ago — the  dreams 
of  boyhood — the  fairy  land  of  youth.  I 
possessed  Aladdin's  lamp  in  those  days, 
and  it  always  answered  my  rubbing.  What 
a  beautiful  world  it  is  to  the  imaginative 
boy !  What  visions  he  can  summon  at 
command  !  What  deeds  he  can  perform  ! 
What  ideals  he  can  raise  !  Take  from  us 
everything  but  leave  us  the  happy  memo- 
ries of  our  youth,  the  day-dreams  of  boy- 
hood, the  castles  in  Spain. 


A  T  ROLLINSFORD.  7 

The  bright  summer  days  of  my  boy- 
hood, those  halcyon  days  so  soon  passed, 
so  dearly  cherished,  the  like  of  which  you 
are  gathered  here  to  celebrate,  were  spent 
over  on  yonder  farm,  which  I  can  almost 
see.  There  I  learned  to  weed  and  hoe  and 
mow  and  rake  and  there  I  learned  (which 
was  of  vastly  more  importance  to  me)  to 
row  and  swim  and  shoot  and  fight.  The 
brook  which  ran  through  our  farm  ran  into 
a  creek  which  in  turn  ran  into  the  Cocheco, 
which  ran  into  the  Piscataqua,  which  ran 
into  the  sea,  so  that  I  felt  that  I  was  at  the 
head  of  navigation,  and  all  I  had  to  do  was 
to  wade  down  the  brook  to  the  creek  to 
begin  a  voyage  around  the  world. 

It  is  a  very  pleasant  thing  to  see  that  so 
many  farms  in  this  vicinity  are  still  in  the 
hands  of  the  descendants  of  the  original 
settlers,  good  old  New  Hampshire  stock. 
Some  have  passed  into  the  care  of  others, 
who,  let  us  hope,  will  cultivate  them  none 
the  less  worthily.  Those  men,  those  early 
settlers,  were  a  strong,  vigorous,  God-serv- 


8  OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

ing  class  of  men,  and  they  have  left  their 
mark  upon  the  community.  It  is  a  fine 
thing  to  see  men  remaining  on  the  soil, 
sticking  by  the  sacred  hearthstone  genera- 
tion after  generation,  watching  the  saplings 
which  their  fathers  planted  grow  to  giant 
trees,  pruning  and  grafting  the  old  orchards 
which  their  grandfathers  set  out,  draining 
the  waste  lands,  preserving  the  forests, 
making  two  blades  of  grass  to  grow  where 
one  grew  before.  This,  I  say,  is  a  pleasant 
thing  to  see.  Would  it  were  more  com- 
mon. New  Hampshire  has  suffered  greatly 
from  the  drifting  away  of  its  best-bred 
stock  to  build  up  and  open  up  the  more 
arable  lands  of  the  West.  She  has  been 
a  prolific  mother  and  now  we  call  upon 
her  sons  and  daughters  to  return  some  of 
the  gifts  of  their  birthright. 

These  old  fields  hereabouts  have  wit- 
nessed strange  scenes  during  the  procession 
of  the  ages.  Savage  Indians  have  crept 
stealthily  among  the  thick  forests  which 
covered  the  hillsides.  Keen-eyed  settlers 


AT  ROLLINSFOKD.  9 

have  watched  the  marauders  from  behind 
log  fortifications.  The  husbandman  has 
wearily,  steadily  toiled  to  bring  these  broad 
acres  into  subjection.  Lighter-hearted 
scenes,  too,  have  had  their  place — the 
apple-paring,  the  corn-husking,  the  barn- 
raising,  the  dance  and  the  marriage.  The 
daily  round  of  work,  pain,  joy,  sorrow,  has 
here  had  its  place.  Here  generation  after 
generation  has  been  born,  lived  its  allotted 
span  of  days,  done  its  task  faithfully  and 
well,  and  passed  on  to  its  reward  in  the 
great  hereafter,  and  now  for  a  brief  day 
the  task  is  yours.  The  sun  shines  for  you 
as  it  did  for  them ;  the  rivers  run  gaily  to 
the  sea  bearing  their  burdens  of  merchan- 
dise, doing  their  part  in  the  work  of 
mankind  by  turning  the  swift-revolving 
wheels  of  industry;  the  fields  bring  forth 
their  increase  to  be  husbanded  and  gath- 
ered by  your  hands ;  the  rains  of  heaven 
fall  gently  upon  the  thirsty  grain ;  the 
dews  of  night  fill  the  chalices  of  the  flow- 
ers. All  is  sweet  and  lovely — nature  at  its 


10         OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

best.  What  account  will  you  give  of  your 
stewardship?  What  will  you  hand  on  to 
the  next  generation?  Will  you  leave  to  it 
an  honored  name,  the  untarnished  one 
given  you  at  your  birth?  Will  you  leave 
to  it  well-tilled  fields,  thrifty  shops,  at- 
tractive homes?  I  believe  so.  But  you 
have  work  to  do.  Dangers  are  around 
you — insidious  dangers  which  are  little  ap- 
preciated, and  which  it  is  a  thankless  task 
to  call  attention  to.  Be  on  your  guard. 
Depart  not  from  the  teachings  of  the  fath- 
ers. Remember  that  wealth  is  but  a  small 
part  of  life  and  not  the  great  desideratum. 
I  have  often  called  attention  to  the  beauty 
of  this  part  of  the  state  in  its  rivers,  their 
steep  wooded  shores,  the  alluvial  bottoms, 
the  stretches  of  marsh  lands,  whereon  the 
sweet  grass  grows,  filling  the  air  with  its 
fragrance,  where  the  cat-o'-nine  tail  waves 
its  nodding  plume  and  the  blackbird  has 
its  nest.  With  a  light  boat  or  canoe  one 
can  travel  for  days,  seeing  scenes  and  vis- 
tas ever  new,  and  still  never  be  far 


A  T  ROLLINSFORD.  1 1 

from  this  lovely  spot.  There  are  the  pic- 
turesque woodlands  about  Great  Bay  and 
the  sharp  headlands  of  the  upper  Cocheco, 
the  attractive  approaches  to  the  old  school- 
town  of  Exeter,  the  graceful  sweep  of  the 
Salmon  Falls,  the  lowlands  of  the  Berwick, 
and  finally  the  unique  loveliness  of  the  swift 
flowing  Piscataqua. 

No  wonder  the  early  settlers  were  wooed 
from  Massachusetts  and  sought  these  lands 
for  their  home.  No  wonder  poets  have 
sung  of  them  and  novelists  have  woven  the 
airy  filaments  of  their  imagination  into  the 
very  history  of  the  section.  Whittier 
loved  it  with  a  passion  which  only  expired 
with  his  last  breath,  and  the  summer 
months  always  found  him  on  our  shores. 
Edna  Dean  Proctor  has  poured  out  her 
heart's  best  for  the  state  of  her  nativity 
and  has  just  issued  an  Old  Home  Week 
edition  of  her  poems  about  New  Hamp- 
shire. Celia  Thaxter  was  a  part,  almost, 
of  the  Isles  of  Shoals,  the  embodied  spirit 
of  the  place,  and  to  know  and  understand 


12          OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

and  appreciate  those  outlying  buttresses  of 
our  state  you  must  read  her  works. 
Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich  makes  us  all  chil- 
dren again  in  his  "  Story  of  a  Bad  Boy," 
the  scene  of  which  is  laid  in  the  fair  city 
of  Portsmouth.  Your  own  dearly-loved 
author — for  she  is  your  neighbor  and  al- 
most your  townswoman  —  Sarah  Orne 
Jewett,  has  reached  after  and  grasped  the 
life  of  the  New  Hampshire  farmer  and 
placed  it  before  us  for  examination  and 
dissection.  And  so  I  might  go  on,  telling 
you  of  the  celebrated  authors  who  have 
found  this  region  so  entrancing,  so  fasci- 
nating, that  it  fairly  possessed  them. 

The  ideal  spot  for  a  home,  for  a  farm 
especially,  is  near  the  seashore  where  you 
can  sit  under  the  great  elms'  shade  and 
look  out  across  the  sedges,  over  the  golden 
sands  to  the  sparkling  sea  and  watch  the 
tall  merchant  ships  go  proudly  by,  or  the 
leaning  yacht,  skimming  gracefully  along 
the  coast.  The  next  best  place  is  contig- 
uous to  a  tidal  river  where  the  sultry  heats 


AT  ROLLINSFORD.  13 

of  summer  are  tempered  by  the  glorious 
tonic  saltness  of  the  sea  breeze  which  always 
follows  the  tidal  water  wherever  it  wan- 
ders. 

There  used  to  be  famous  gatherings  over 
on  the  old  Rollins  farm  where  I  spent  my 
boyhood.  As  you  may  remember,  my 
father  was  somewhat  interested  in  politics 
and  is  said  to  have  been  a  Republican ;  at 
least  his  tendencies  were  that  way.  During 
the  summer,  gatherings  of  the  faithful  were 
common.  Among  the  faces  I  remember 
seeing  there  frequently  were  Judge  Doe, 
one  of  the  greatest  lawyers  and  jurists 
ever  produced  in  New  Hampshire;  Col. 
Daniel  Hall,  Col.  Andrew  Young,  one  of 
the  most  entertaining  men  I  ever  knew, 
Col.  Samuel  Fisher,  Aaron  Young,  and 
A.  F.  Howard  of  Portsmouth,  Gen.  R.  N. 
Batchelder,  quartermaster-general  of  the 
army,  and  who  made  such  a  brilliant  record 
in  the  war,  Gen.  Gilman  Marston,  that 
sturdy  old  fighter,  Gov.  Charles  H.  Saw- 
yer, quiet,  lovable,  appreciative  of  a  good 


14         OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

joke,  Hon.  J.  Frank  Seavey,  Henry  M. 
Putney  of  Manchester,  keen  and  witty,  Dr. 
Spaulding,  broad,  incisive,  one  of  the  great 
men  of  the  day,  O.  S.  Brown,  your  active, 
clear-brained  townsman,  Hon.  W.  H.  Mor- 
ton, whom  your  town  has  honored  itself  in 
honoring  for  fifty  years,  and  many  others. 
Many  of  these  men  have  finished  their 
labors,  leaving  honored  names  for  us  to 
cherish.  I  shall  not  forget,  however,  those 
gatherings,  the  thorough  discussion  of  the 
burning  questions  of  the  day,  the  sizing 
up  of  the  prominent  men  in  public  life,  the 
capital  stories,  the  scintillating  wit  and 
ready  repartee.  I  learned  many  things 
which  I  have  never  forgotten.  In  the  pas- 
ture was  a  fine  grove  of  old  pines  and 
there,  bubbling  and  boiling,  was  a  rare 
spring  of  cold  water  around  which  those 
reunions  were  apt  to  be  held.  Lying  upon 
the  soft  pine  needles  in  the  grateful  shade 
of  the  overarching  trees,  I  could  look  out 
upon  a  little  glade  through  which  laughed 
and  tinkled  a  famous  trout  brook,  and  see 


AT  ROLLINSFORD.  15 

the  cattle  grazing  contentedly  on  the  lush 
grass — a  picture  I  love  to  recall. 

If  I  might  be  permitted  to  offer  a  sug- 
gestion to  you  in  the  most  friendly  way,  I 
should  say  that  what  you  need  here  most 
of  all  is  a  little  stirring  up ;  a  little  more 
civic  pride ;  a  little  more  interest  in  the 
affairs  and  welfare  of  your  town.  You 
need  to  give  more  attention  to  your  roads 
and  buildings.  You  ought  to  turn  out 
en  masse  on  town-meeting  day  and  have  a 
voice  in  the  deliberations  of  your  town 
fathers.  Let  the  representative  men  of 
the  town  be  there  to  shape  public  opinion 
and  forward  the  general  welfare.  There  is 
no  escape  from  the  responsibility  of  citi- 
zenship. You  cannot,  must  not,  leave  it 
to  others.  You  ought  to  use  every  effort 
to  keep  the  young  people  on  the  farms, 
and  to  try  to  induce  others  of  good  blood 
to  settle  here.  You  ought  to  protect  and 
build  up  your  manufacturing  interests,  and 
do  everything  in  your  power  to  assimilate 
and  Americanize  the  large  foreign  element 


1 6         OLD  HOME   WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

which  has  cast  in  its  fortunes  with  this 
community  in  latter  days.  This  element 
has  brought  new  responsibilities  and  diffi- 
culties but  you  must  not  shirk  them.  You 
must  meet  them  in  a  broad,  catholic  spirit. 
You  ought  to  give  more  attention  to  the 
social  life  of  the  town ;  make  it  more  at- 
tractive to  young  and  old.  Do  away  as 
far  as  possible  with  the  necessity  for  seek- 
ing distraction  and  pleasure  elsewhere. 
You  ought  to  jealously  guard  your  schools 
and  rally  to  the  support  of  your  churches. 
You  have  a  little  commonwealth  here, 
complete  in  itself.  It  should  be  your  aim 
to  make  it  rank  among  the  first  in  cul- 
ture, thrift,  honesty,  Christianity,  and  right 
living. 


SALEM, 

AUGUST  14,  1900. 


AT  SALEM. 

Old  Home  Week  has  developed  many 
interesting  aspects  in  the  scant  twelve 
months  since  it  was  introduced  as  a  fea- 
ture of  the  social  life  of  New  Hampshire, 
but  none  that  is  more  gratifying  to  me 
than  the  tendency  to  make  the  new  fes- 
tival the  occasion  for  recognizing  and 
commemorating  important  events  in  local 
history. 

Our  state  has  a  history  covering  more 
than  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  which  is 
full  of  romance;  illumined  by  records  of 
feats  of  bravery,  endurance,  sacrifice ; 
memorable  for  strenuous  effort  and  high 
achievement.  The  instruction  afforded  by 
our  common  schools  is  excellent,  but  I 
wish  that  much  more  might  be  done  in 
the  direction  of  teaching  our  girls  and 
boys  what  has  been  done  right  here  on 
New  Hampshire  soil  to  establish  liberty 


2O         OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

imperishably,  and  to  make  freedom  secure 
for  all  time.  The  published  local  histo- 
ries cover  hardly  one  in  ten  of  the  two 
hundred  and  thirty-five  cities  and  towns  of 
our  state,  and  the  biographical  record — 
rich  as  it  is  in  material — is  even  less  com- 
plete. We  have  places  associated  with 
great  events  in  state  and  national  history, 
and  with  the  lives  of  the  participants  in 
those  events,  which  would  become  shrines 
of  patriotic  devotion  if  their  location 
could  be  made  plain  and  their  import- 
ance signified. 

I  am  gratified  that  you  have  brought 
this  important  event  in  the  history  of  your 
ancient  and  honored  town  within  the 
limits  of  New  Hampshire's  second  Old 
Home  Week,  and  that  in  all  your  prepa- 
rations you  have  made  the  historical 
element  prominent.  I  am  especially 
gratified  that  you  have  made  this  the 
occasion  for  setting  up  memorials,  as  was 
done  happily  on  Boscawen's  Old  Home 
Day  last  year,  and  has  since  been  done  at 


AT  SALEM.  21 

Odiorne's  Point  and  in  Concord,  where 
the  first  religious  service  was  held,  and  by 
private  generosity  at  the  birthplace  of 
Horace  Greeley  in  Amherst.  Bunker 
Hill  monument  tells  the  story  of  a  mo- 
mentous event  in  the  world's  history,  and 
it  has  its  most  fitting  place  among 
the  nation's  best  memorials,  but  it  stands 
there  with  all  its  o'er-shadowing  grandeur 
no  more  worthily  than  does  the  modest 
tablet  which  marks  the  last  resting-place 
of  the  humblest  patriot  who  fought  there. 
I  hope  to  see  your  example  followed 
generally  in  our  towns  and  cities  and  to 
live  to  know  that  visitors  to  our  state  need 
not  come  here  and  enjoy  our  scenery 
without  learning  something  of  the  rarely 
interesting  history  which  makes  these 
hills  and  valleys  as  memorable  as  they 
are  beautiful.  New  Hampshire  has  stood 
well  to  the  front  in  movements  which 
have  made  conditions  better,  and  especi- 
ally in  matters  affecting  the  intelligence 
of  her  people,  and  I  have  read  with 


22       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

sincere  pleasure  of  the  impetus  to  his- 
torical consideration  and  recognition 
which  Old  Home  Week  has  given.  Gov- 
ernor Mount  of  Indiana  by  formal  proc- 
lamation called  upon  his  people  to  devote 
the  last  4th  of  July  to  meetings  for  the 
discussion  of  historical  themes  to  the  end 
that  the  people  might  the  better  under- 
stand the  beginnings  and  the  progress 
of  their  communities,  municipalities,  and 
commonwealth.  The  secretary  of  the 
Ohio  Historical  Society  wrote  me  not 
long  ago  that  their  strong  and  energetic 
organization  proposed  to  adopt  the  Old 
Home  Week  plan  as  a  means  for  carry- 
ing on  its  local  work,  and  I  could 
mention  other  instances  which  indicate 
how  widely  the  Old  Home  Week  leaven 
is  working. 

You  celebrate  to-day  the  beginning  of 
Salem  as  an  incorporated  town,  and 
you  do  well  to  make  the  one  hundred 
and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  that  event  the 
important  occasion,  which  I  think  all 


AT  SALEM.  23 

must  admit  this  proves  to  be.  That  act 
of  incorporation  when  the  Salem  of  to- 
day, save  the  old  North  Parish  village, 
was  mostly  a  waste,  or  at  least  unoccu- 
pied and  unimproved,  meant  that  from 
that  time  forward  through  generation  after 
generation,  there  existed  thenceforth  an 
organization  possessed  of  certain  powers 
and  charged  with  certain  duties,  the  pos- 
session of  which  and  the  discharge  of 
which  make  up  the  honorable  and  patri- 
otic record  of  Salem  for  fifteen  decades. 
The  establishment  of  town  government 
meant  that  the  duties  of  citizenship  would 
be  performed  so  far  as  they  related  to 
routine  business,  and  it  meant  also  that 
the  means  existed  for  working  out  far 
weightier  and  more  serious  problems. 
Your  town  government  made  certain  that 
the  meeting-house  and  the  schoolhouse 
would  be  established  and  maintained,  and 
I  think  we  can  judge  something  of  the 
high  character  of  the  first  citizens  of 
Salem  from  the  fact  that,  when  the  parish 


24       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

was  organized  in  the  stockade  some  four- 
teen or  fifteen  years  before  the  town  was 
incorporated,  a  liberal  sum  was  voted  for 
the  support  of  preaching,  and  further,  that 
the  Rev.  Abner  Bayley,  who  began  his 
pastorate  in  1740,  continued  his  ministry 
here  for  more  than  half  a  century.  The 
town-meetings  here,  as  in  all  New  Eng- 
land towns,  were  the  forum  in  which  were 
discussed  not  only  local  questions  but  the 
affairs  of  the  colony  as  well,  and,  as  the 
controversy  with  the  mother  country  grew 
imminent,  it  was  the  town-meeting  that 
furnished  the  means  for  preparation,  and 
for  action  when  action  could  not  longer 
be  delayed.  The  town-meeting  was  the 
place  where  patriotic  sentiment  was  cre- 
ated, and  there  this  patriotic  sentiment 
took  form  in  patriotic  deeds.  As  early  as 
the  22d  of  April,  1775,  we  find  Salem  in 
town-meeting  considering  the  questions 
of  raising  a  proper  number  of  men  for 
the  defense  of  the  country  and  making 
provision  for  their  pay;  and  two  days 


AT  SALEM.  25 

later  voting  to  enlist  thirty  men,  to  pay 
them  $6  per  month,  and  to  furnish  pro- 
vision for  the  enlisted  men.  It  was  this 
ability  and  willingness  to  meet  the  crisis 
with  prompt  armed  resistance  which  gave 
confidence  in  the  final  outcome  of  the 
War  for  Independence.  The  towns  en- 
forced law  and  maintained  order  while 
the  administration  of  justice  was  being 
subverted  by  war,  and  when  the  contest 
was  over  these  same  town  governments 
furnished  the  elements  of  organization 
which  were  needed  to  carry  the  country 
onward  to  prosperity  and  power.  The 
heritage  of  the  old  New  England  town 
with  all  the  glory  that  belongs  to  it,  be- 
cause of  the  part  it  bore  in  establishing 
the  freedom  of  the  American  colonies 
and  bringing  into  being  this  best  and 
greatest  of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
is  indeed  a  priceless  one,  and  you  people 
of  Salem  may  well  point  with  pride  to 
your  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  town 
government  with  its  grand  record  of  pa- 


26       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

triotism  in  all  the  wars  this  nation  has 
passed  through,  and  of  wise,  sturdy,  hon- 
orable citizenship  in  the  years  of  peace 
which  have  followed. 

Salem  has  a  past  to  be  proud  of,  and 
there  can  be  no  question  about  what  the 
future  has  in  store  for  this  intelligent, 
enterprising  people.  In  her  behalf  I  ask 
of  her  absent  sons  and  daughters  not  to 
disregard  the  allegiance  they  owe  to  the 
old  town.  New  Hampshire  has  given 
liberally  of  her  children  that  other  por- 
tions of  our  common  country  might 
profit  by  the  New  England  training 
which,  above  that  of  any  other  portion 
of  the  earth,  stands  for  common  sense, 
for  courage,  and  for  character.  The 
stream  has  flowed  unceasingly  for  more 
than  a  century,  and  I  can  see  no  sign 
that  its  current  is  being  stayed,  although 
we  speak  of  Webster  and  Cass  and  Chase 
and  those  other  giants  of  New  Hampshire 
birth  as  if  with  their  death  the  glory  of 
our  emigrants  had  ceased  to  be.  This  I 


AT  SALEM.  27 

count  a  grand  result  of  Old  Home  Week 
— that  the  fact  has  been  established  that 
men  and  women  of  New  Hampshire  birth 
to-day  are  taking  an  active  part  in  the 
struggle  for  peace  and  wealth  and  honor 
which  never  waged  more  strenuously  than 
in  this  year  1900,  and  that  they  stand  as 
shining  examples  of  the  results  of  training 
in  the  homes  of  the  old  Granite  state. 
We  are  proud  of  the  success  of  our  New 
Hampshire  men  and  women  in  business 
life,  in  the  professions,  in  statesmanship, 
in  all  the  honorable  callings  and  occupa- 
tions, and  while  we  rejoice  that  the  oppor- 
tunities, which  perhaps  were  wanting  at 
home,  have  been  found  in  other  and 
larger  states,  we  ask  them  to  share  some 
of  their  success  with  those  who  have 
stayed  at  home.  We  ask  them  to  pay 
frequent  visits  to  the  old  familiar  scenes. 
If  their  hearts  are  touched  to  give  out  of 
their  ample  means,  let  them  consider  the 
great  usefulness  of  well  stocked  libraries 
in  towns  which  cannot  provide  them,  and 


28        OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

the  advantages  of  highways  better  than 
those  which  a  not  burdensome  taxation 
can  provide.  If  they  seek  for  beauty  and 
healthfulness  and  peacefulness  amid  which 
to  spend  the  summer  months,  or  perhaps 
the  years  of  well-earned  leisure  which  in 
so  many  cases  follow  successful  endeavor, 
let  them  remember  our  lakes  and  moun- 
tains. You  people  of  Salem  have  object 
lessons  teaching  the  great  benefit  and  the 
great  pleasure  which  the  return  of  absent 
ones  confers,  and  I  am  sure  no  commu- 
nity more  fully  than  yours  grasps  the  true 
meaning  of  Old  Home  Day,  which  is 
being  so  happily  and  so  wisely  observed 
here  now.  I  thank  you  for  the  hearti- 
ness with  which  you  have  entered  into 
these  festivities,  and  I  ask  that  you  con- 
tinue to  make  Old  Home  Day  the  occa- 
sion for  many  a  happy  reunion  and  help- 
ful interchange  of  experiences  and  aspira- 
tions. 


WOODSTOCK, 


AUGUST  15,1900. 


AT   WOODSTOCK. 

One  hundred  years  ago  New  Hamp- 
shire's five  counties,  Cheshire,  Grafton, 
Hillsborough,  Rockingham,  and  Strafford, 
had  an  aggregate  population  of  183,858, 
not  one  half  as  many  as  the  state  can 
number  at  the  opening  of  the  twentieth 
century. 

The  only  place  worthy  to  be  dignified 
with  the  title  of  city  was  the  state's  one 
seaport,  Portsmouth,  then  the  home  of 
two  hundred  sailing  vessels,  "the  resi- 
dence of  many  cultured  families,  and  the 
seat  of  a  generous  hospitality,  of  an  easy 
and  agreeable  and  refined  society." 
Many  men  of  good  judgment  enter- 
tained the  belief  at  that  time  that  the 
future  progress  and  prosperity  of  Ports- 
mouth were  more  assured  than  those  of 
Boston. 

The     present     cities     of      Manchester, 


32        OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

Nashua,  Laconia,  Franklin,  Rochester, 
Somersworth,  and  Berlin  were  not  even 
dreamed  of  then.  Concord  was  a  strag- 
gling settlement  along  one  street,  shar- 
ing with  Hopkinton  the  privilege  of  en- 
tertaining the  legislature,  but  not  named 
as  the  permanent  capital  until  some 
years  later.  The  strength  of  the  state 
was  in  its  large  farming  towns,  Exeter, 
Amherst,  Walpole,  Charlestown,  Haver- 
hill,  Hopkinton,  Boscawen,  and  a  score  of 
others. 

The  absolute  domination  of  the  Feder- 
alist party  in  the  state  and  nation  was 
drawing  to  an  end.  The  electors  chosen 
by  New  Hampshire  voted  for  John  Adams 
of  Massachusetts  and  Charles  C.  Pinckney 
of  South  Carolina  for  president  and  vice- 
president,  but  Thomas  Jefferson  and 
Aaron  Burr  were  chosen. 

John  Taylor  Oilman,  distinguished  son 
of  a  sterling  sire  of  the  Revolution,  was  in 
the  middle  of  his  fourteen  years'  service, 
the  longest  term  vouchsafed  to  any  gov- 


AT  WOODSTOCK.  33 

ernor  in  the  history  of  New  Hampshire. 
In  1800  he  received  10,362  votes  to  6,039 
for  Timothy  Walker,  another  noted  mem- 
ber of  a  noted  family. 

Joseph  Pearson  was  serving  the  fifteenth 
year  of  his  nineteen  as  secretary  of  state 
and  clerk  of  the  senate.  Samuel  Liver- 
more,  jurist  and  statesman,  was  the 
United  States  senator  from  New  Hamp- 
shire. The  election  sermon  of  the  year 
was  preached  by  Noah  Worcester.  Gen- 
eral John  Stark's  old  age  was  cheered 
by  the  recognition  of  a  pension  from  the 
nation.  Daniel  Webster  was  in  his  Junior 
year  at  Dartmouth  college,  planning  with 
his  father  to  allow  his  brother  Ezekiel 
to  enter  the  next  class.  Joshua  Ather- 
ton  was  attorney-general,  John  Lang- 
don  a  member  of  the  legislature,  and 
the  great  Jeremiah  Smith  of  that  day 
was  judge  of  probate  for  Rockingham 
county. 

The  legislature  of  1800  was  in  session 
at  Concord  from  June  4  to  June  16  and 


34        OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

closed  on  a  Monday,  the  governor  refus- 
ing to  adjourn  the  houses  on  Saturday 
lest  some  of  the  members  might  travel 
towards  their  homes  on  the  Sabbath. 
The  chief  contest  during  the  session  was 
over  a  proposition  to  charter  a  second 
bank  in  the  state,  a  cry  of  monopoly  being 
raised  against  the  one  then  existent.  The 
extra  charter,  however,  was  refused. 

Although  the  locomotive  was  forty 
years  away  and  the  electric  car  twice  as 
many,  the  people  of  1800  were  just  as 
desirous  as  those  of  1900  for  "  rapid  tran- 
sit "  and  the  cry  for  "  good  roads "  was 
uttered  with  as  much  enthusiasm  at  the 
beginning  of  the  century  as  at  its  end. 

In  the  two  decades  between  1795  and 
1815,  no  less  than  fifty-three  turnpikes 
were  chartered,  and  most  of  them  were 
built,  some  at  a  cost  as  high  as  $60,000. 
Before  1800  three  had  been  chartered, 
the  first  from  Concord  to  the  Piscataqua 
bridge  in  Portsmouth,  fifty-three  miles; 
the  second,  from  Claremont  to  Amherst, 


AT  WOODSTOCK.  35 

fifty  miles ;  and  the  third,  from  Walpole 
fifty  miles  towards  Boston.  The  fourth, 
from  Boscawen  to  Hanover,  was  begun 
in  1800  and  finished  four  years  later. 

Even  before  roads,  in  the  minds  of  the 
early  settlers,  came  meeting-houses  and 
schoolhouses.  The  meeting-house  usually 
stood  on  an  eminence,  to  guard  against 
Indian  surprises.  It  was  long  and  broad 
and  high,  with  great  square  pews  and 
a  dome-shaped  sounding-board  over  the 
lofty  pulpit.  For  the  most  part  the 
Congregationalist  doctrine  was  preached 
within  its  walls,  though  various  other 
denominations,  Protestant  Episcopal,  Bap- 
tist, Methodist,  Presbyterian,  Catholic, 
Quaker,  and  Shaker,  were  well  represented 
in  the  state. 

At  the  1800  town-meeting  in  Boscawen, 
one  of  the  articles  in  the  warrant  was 
to  see  if  the  establishment  of  a  second 
meeting-house  in  the  west  part  of  the 
town  should  be  allowed.  "  Father  "  Price, 
in  his  history  of  the  town,  says:  "And  as, 


36       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

in  this  act,  religious  characters,  as  well 
as  others,  were  implicated,  it,  therefore, 
became  every  professor  of  religion  to 
inquire,  while  exercising  his  legal  right  in 
voting  in  town-meeting,  Am  I  not  violat- 
ing the  law  of  Christ?" 

The  little  schoolhouses  were  even  more 
numerous  than  the  big  meeting-houses, 
a  half  dozen,  a  dozen,  and  even  more,  to 
a  town.  The  founding  of  higher  insti- 
tutions of  learning  had  been  well  begun. 
Dartmouth  college  was  pluckily  fighting 
its  way,  little  dreaming  that  its  entering 
class  a  century  later  would  number  three 
hundred  boys.  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  was, 
by  his  unaided  efforts,  keeping  alive  the 
Dartmouth  Medical  school.  Phillips  Exe- 
ter academy  was  a  lusty  youth,  sixteen 
years  of  age,  and  other  flourishing  acad- 
emies were  located  at  New  Ipswich,  Atkin- 
son, Amherst,  Chesterfield,  Haverhill,  and 
Gilmanton. 

The  private  and  family  life  of  that  time 
was  Arcadian  in  its  simplicity.  The  late 


AT  WOODSTOCK.  37 

Professor  Sanborn  of  Dartmouth  college 
well  says :  "  We  can  scarcely  conceive  of 
a  more  independent,  self-reliant,  hearty, 
healthy,  and  hopeful  denizen  of  earth  than 
the  farmer  of  that  age.  He  lived  upon 
the  produce  of  his  own  soil ;  was  warmed 
by  fuel  from  his  own  woods  and  clothed 
from  the  flax  of  his  own  fields  or  the 
fleeces  of  his  own  flock.  ...  So  the 
year  went  round,  marked  by  thrift,  con- 
tentment, and  prosperity.  .  .  .  The 
mechanic  was  the  peer  and  helper  of  the 
farmer.  He  was  itinerant,  working  where 
needed  and  receiving  for  his  lot  the 
products  of  the  farm  or  loom  or  stores 
from  the  larder  or  cellar." 

The  great  feature  of  the  household  life 
was  the  huge  fireplace,  large  enough  to 
receive  logs  three  and  four  feet  in  diam- 
eter, with  an  oven  in  the  back  and  a  flue 
nearly  large  enough  to  allow  the  ascent 
of  a  balloon.  A  person  might  literally 
sit  in  the  chimney  corner  and  study 
astronomy.  All  the  cooking  was  done  by 


38        OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

this  fire,  and  around  it  gathered  the  family 
at  evening. 

As  Whittier  sings : 

"  We  piled  with  care  our  nightly  stack 
Of  wood  against  the  chimney  back, 
The  oaken  log,  green,  huge,  and  thick, 
And  on  its  top  the  stout  backstick ; 
The  knotty  forestick  laid  apart, 
And  filled  between  with  curious  art 
The  ragged  brush  ;   then,  hovering  near, 
We  watched  the  first  red  blaze  appear, 
Heard  the  sharp  crackle,  caught  the  gleam 
On  whitewashed  wall  and  sagging  beam, 
Until  the  old,  rude-fashioned  room 
Burst,  flower-like,  into  rosy  bloom." 

And  what  shall  we  say  of  the  New 
Hampshire  of  to-day?  It  has  doubled 
its  population ;  it  has  eleven  thriving, 
busy  cities ;  it  has  large  numbers  of 
busy,  prosperous  towns  and  villages ;  it  is 
grid-ironed  with  steam  and  electric  rail- 
ways;  its  streams  turn  numberless  spin- 
dles ;  great  skyward  pointing  chimneys 
pour  forth  their  rolling  clouds,  telling  of 
ceaseless  industry;  distances  are  halved 


AT  WOODSTOCK.  39 

by  means  of  rapid  transit ;  the  telephone 
keeps  our  friends  always  within  call,  no 
matter  how  far  away;  our  literary  and 
educational  advantages  are  greatly  mul- 
tiplied and  improved ;  the  means  and 
comforts  of  living  have  made  vast  strides. 
Our  cities  show  the  mark  of  an  improved 
taste,  a  better  knowledge  of  art  and  archi- 
tecture ;  our  towns  give  more  attention  to 
neatness  and  cleanliness  ;  but  our  farming 
lands  have  on  the  whole  deteriorated. 

I  believe  there  is  as  much  money  to  be 
made  on  the  hill  farms  to-day  as  ever,  if 
they  are  farmed  intelligently  and  on  the 
right  lines.  I  do  not  expect  our  farmers 
to  live  as  economically  as  their  fathers, 
who  practically  lived  off  their  land  ;  but 
I  do  expect  them  to  adapt  themselves 
to  the  new  conditions  which  have  arisen 
and  meet  the  new  questions  bravely.  If 
they  do  not,  they  must  give  way  to  alien 
races  who  are  coming  in  and  who  are 
shrewd  enough  to  see  the  possibilities  of 
careful,  progressive,  intensive  farming  with 
a  market  at  our  own  doors. 


40       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

All  over  the  state,  on  mountain  sum- 
mit, by  the  lake  shore,  in  the  forests' 
depths,  in  hotels,  cottages,  and  camps — 
every  summer  thousands  turn  to  New 
Hampshire  to  repair  their  toil-  and  care- 
worn systems.  The  state  becomes  one 
vast  sanitarium  from  June  to  December 
and  happy  hearts  and  prolonged  days 
are  the  result. 

As  a  result  of  its  manufacturing  inter- 
ests and  its  summer  resort  interests, 
New  Hampshire  is  prosperous,  as  is  evi- 
denced by  its  comfortable  homes,  its 
well- apparelled  people,  its  freedom  from 
debt,  its  large  bank  deposits.  Mater- 
ially we  are  well  off — vastly  more  so 
than  our  ancestors,  vastly  more  so  than 
their  descendants  in  the  year  1800. 
Whether  we  are  better  off  spiritually  is 
a  question  much  debated.  I  have  my 
views  on  the  subject,  which  I  will  not  go 
into  here ;  but  it  may  be  proper  for 
me  to  say  that  I  think  we  miss  a  little 
in  these  days  the  rugged,  down-right, 


AT  WOODSTOCK.  41 

straight-going  belief,  free  from  guess- 
work or  uncertainty,  of  those  good  old 
days.  It  steered  the  people  clear  of 
many  troubles  and  trials.  It  at  least  pre- 
served one  day  in  seven  as  a  day  of  rest. 
We  have  substituted  for  it  an  easy-going 
indifference,  an  all-accepting  optimism, 
ready  to  throw  down  all  customs,  rules, 
and  bars  in  order  to  preserve  our  own 
comfort. 

In  1800  our  people  were  intent  upon 
getting  a  mere  livelihood  and  had  little 
time  for  art,  music,  literature,  or  travel. 
To-day  the  education  given  by  our  gram- 
mar schools  is  probably  superior  to  that 
obtained  at  the  colleges  and  academies 
of  those  days.  Literature  has  become  a 
passion,  not  a  necessity,  and  travel  the 
privilege  of  the  poor  as  well  as  of  the 
well-to-do  and  rich. 

In  1800  Manchester  was  a  sand  hill. 
To-day  it  is  a  great  city  of  fifty-seven 
thousand  people.  In  1800  Concord  was 
simply  a  village  street.  To-day  it  has 


42       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

twenty  thousand  people.  Where  have 
the  people  to  build  up  these  and  other 
cities  come  from?  From  the  hill  farms, 
from  the  farming  towns.  It  is  simply 
part  of  the  process  of  centralization, 
which  has  been  going  on  here  as  well  as 
the  world  over  for  the  last  hundred 
years.  The  country  towns  and  villages 
have  suffered  in  order  that  the  great 
cities  might  be  created.  Great  disas- 
ters have  been  caused  by  this  process. 
Great  dangers  will  follow  if  it  is  not 
checked.  This  has  been  clearly  seen  for 
many  years,  and  already  many  evidences 
of  its  baleful  effect  have'  appeared.  If  it 
were  to  go  on  as  it  has  latterly  I  should 
almost  despair  of  my  country,  for  the  true 
life  of  man  is  lived  upon  the  soil.  But, 
fortunately,  the  tide  has  turned.  The  eyes 
of  thinking  men  have  been  opened,  they 
are  turning  their  steps  once  more  toward 
the  open  fields  and  pastures  of  their  child- 
hood. They  are  coming  back  to  the  old 
home.  Men  are  realizing  that  the  life  in 


AT  WOODSTOCK.  43 

cities  is  forced,  artificial,  unreal,  unhealth- 
ful,  and  they  are  harking  back  to  first 
principles,  getting  back  to  nature.  Partic- 
ularly is  this  so  where  there  are  chil- 
dren, who  always  ought  to  be  brought 
up  with  their  ears  to  the  ground  where 
they  can  hear  Nature  whisper  her  secrets. 

With  this  returning  wave  I  look  to 
see  great  advancement  in  New  Hamp- 
shire. I  hope  to  see  her  farms  rejuv- 
enated, her  roads  improved,  her  schools 
made  equal  to  the  best,  her  churches 
filled,  her  forests  preserved.  I  hope  to 
see,  through  the  influx  of  returning  sons, 
the  waste  places  made  beautiful.  I  hope 
to  see  an  intelligent  system  of  forestry 
introduced.  I  hope  to  see  a  higher  cul- 
ture. I  hope  to  see  a  striving  for  higher 
ideals.  I  hope  to  see  less  venality  in  our 
politics.  I  hope  to  see  partisanship  oblit- 
erated from  our  local  and  municipal 
affairs. 

These  are  some  of  the  things  I  hope 
for.  There  is  as  good  blood,  as  good 


44       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES.    . 

stock,    in    New    Hampshire   as    anywhere 
in  the  world. 

We  must  not  let  it  deteriorate,  and 
the  leading  men  of  the  state  should  set 
a  high  standard  of  precept  and  example 
for  the  people  to  follow.  We  should  all 
remember,  especially  those  who  have 
been  endowed  with  good  education  and 
comfortable  means,  that  the  old  motto, 
Noblesse  oblige,  is  applicable  here  in  its 
full  import. 


HANOVER, 


AUGUST   16,   1900. 


AT    HANOVER. 

The  object  of  Old  Home  Week  is  two- 
fold :  First,  to  renew  and  strengthen  the 
bond  between  those  who  have  sought 
success  elsewhere  and  those  who  have 
wooed  her  under  the  shadows  of  our 
mountain  peaks;  second,  to  stimulate  our 
people  to  renewed  efforts  to  cultivate 
higher  ideals, — to  draw  out  all  that  is 
sweetest  and  best  in  their  natures. 

Last  year  witnessed  the  inauguration 
of  the  custom ;  and  the  firm  intention  is 
to  make  it  a  yearly  festival,  occurring 
some  time  in  the  month  of  August,  or 
September,  as  may  be  deemed  best  each 
year.  During  my  visits  to  the  various 
towns  which  have  celebrated  Old  Home 
Week,  I  have  met  many  of  the  return- 
ing sons  and  daughters;  and,  while  they 
all  expressed  great  pleasure  in  the  gath- 
erings, the  idea  which  seemed  to  me  to 


48       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

be  uppermost  in  their  minds  was  that 
it  furnished  an  occasion  when,  by  com- 
ing home,  they  were  sure  to  meet  the 
friends  and  companions  of  their  youth 
who  had  been  scattered  all  over  this 
broad  continent.  They  felt  that  here 
was  an  occasion  when  they  could  come 
back  with  reasonable  certainty  of  meet- 
ing those  with  whom  they  had  gone  to 
school,  and  by  whose  sides  they  had 
played  and  worked  in  boyhood  days. 
That  is  one  great  object  of  having  it  an 
annual  festival.  It  is  unnecessary  for 
me  to  state  that  the  celebration  last  year 
was  a  complete  success.  It  far  exceeded 
my  highest  expectations.  I  attended 
during  the  week  as  many  of  the  local 
celebrations  as  time  would  permit,  and, 
without  exception,  they  were  the  occa- 
sions of  thorough  and  heartfelt  pleas- 
ure to  all  present;  and  I  have  since 
learned  they  have  been  productive  of 
much  practical  good  to  the  towns  and 
to  the  people.  I  am  not  going  to  take 


AT  HANOVER.  49 

up  with  you  at  this  time  the  question 
of  the  material,  or  practical,  benefit  of 
these  celebrations  to  the  various  towns 
and  to  the  state,  as  that  would  require 
more  time  than  I  have  at  my  disposal, 
and,  further,  because  I  like  best  to  dwell 
upon  the  sentimental  side ;  it  appeals  to 
me  with  greater  strength.  I  like  to  get 
away  as  much  as  possible  from  the  ma- 
terialistic side.  Some  people  doubted 
whether  we  could  have  another  celebra- 
tion this  year  which  would  be  successful ; 
in  other  words,  they  doubted  the  practica- 
bility of  making  it  an  annual  festival ;  but 
the  various  gatherings  which  have  already 
been  held  this  year,  and  your  own  splen- 
did celebration  here  to-day,  put  the  ques- 
tion beyond  doubt.  It  is  a  settled  fact 
that  we  can  and  shall  have  an  annual  Old 
Home  Week. 

Furthermore,  the  idea  has  been  seized 
with  avidity  by  some  of  our  sister  states. 
You  have  all  read  of  the  magnificent  Old 
Home  Week  in  Maine,  which  was  cele- 


50       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

brated  last  week.  From  one  end  of  the 
state  to  the  other  towns  and  cities  vied 
with  each  other  in  the  generosity  of  their 
entertainment,  the  splendor  of  their  deco- 
rations, the  excellence  of  their  spreads, 
and  the  number  of  returning  sons.  I  was 
myself  privileged  to  be  present  at  the 
central  celebration  in  Portland,  and  it  was 
one  of  the  grandest  sights  I  have  ever 
witnessed.  The  city  was  decorated  like  a 
veritable  fairy  land  with  bunting  and  col- 
ored electric  lights.  The  great  fleet  of 
warships  in  the  harbor,  contributed  by  the 
general  government,  furnished  a  noble  and 
inspiring  spectacle,  both  day  and  night. 
The  parade  was  one  to  stir  the  heart  of 
any  American;  but  the  thing  which  ap- 
pealed to  me  most  was  when  that  great 
body  of  Massachusetts  citizens,  born  in 
Maine,  marched  in  solid  phalanx  by 
the  reviewing  stand,  each  carrying  a  ban- 
ner, and  every  face  beaming  with  love  for 
the  state  of  his  nativity.  It  was  a  glorious 
sight  and  one  I  shall  not  soon  forget. 


AT  HANOVER.  51 

Other  states  have  adopted  the  idea  or 
will  soon  do  so.  Ohio  and  Michigan 
have  taken  it  up  in  a  modified  form ;  and 
I  am  informed  that  Vermont  is  to  cele- 
brate her  first  Old  Home  Week  in  1901. 
It  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  say  that  if 
Vermont  undertakes  it,  it  will  be  done 
magnificently.  I  have  seen  the  sugges- 
tion made  that  the  thirteen  original  states 
should  all,  sooner  or  later,  adopt  the  idea; 
and  this  scheme  appeals  to  me  with 
peculiar  force.  I  think  the  suggestion 
was  made  by  one  of  the  leading  New 
York  papers,  and  I  hope  it  will  be  carried 
out. 

The  various  ways  in  which  such  cele- 
brations do  good  are  too  many  to  enu- 
merate here.  They  appeal  to  different 
states  in  different  ways;  but  each  year, 
as  these  festivals  multiply,  the  benefits 
will  accumulate,  and  I  think  it  will  come 
to  be  looked  upon  as  the  greatest  and 
most  enjoyable  festival  of  the  year. 

I   have   said   that  I  wished   to   efface   in 


52        OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

these  days  as  much  as  possible  the  prac- 
tical benefits  to  be  derived.  I  wish  to 
speak  principally  of  the  way  in  which  it 
appeals  to  sentiment.  The  reason  it  ap- 
peals to  sentiment  is,  I  believe,  we  all 
devote  too  much  time  and  too  much 
thought  to  purely  practical  things — to  the 
mere  gaining  a  living,  to  the  accumula- 
tion of  wealth.  I  think  I  see  dangers  to 
our  beautiful  country  from  the  encroach- 
ment of  materialism  ;  and  I  believe  every- 
thing which  we  can  do  to  cultivate  senti- 
ment (and  by  sentiment  I  do  not  mean 
inane  sentiment,  but  sentiment  of  the 
highest  order,  of  the  most  advanced  kind) 
— I  say  that  everything  which  we  can  do 
to  cultivate  this,  is  to  our  advantage,  and 
is  an  offset  to  the  dangers  of  materialism. 
I  am  a  great  believer  in  holidays,  and  I 
don't  think  we  have  any  too  many  in  this 
country,  for  a  holiday  is  a  day,  generally, 
to  celebrate  some  great  event,  or  the  birth 
of  some  saint,  or  some  good  man,  all  of 
which  is  sentiment  largely ;  and  I  believe 


AT  HANOVER.  53 

that  the  addition  of  a  holiday  of  this  kind, 
which  appeals  to  the  best  sentiment  in  our 
natures,  will  be  beneficial.  Old  Home 
Week  celebrates  the  love  of  home,  the 
love  of  kindred,  the  love  of  our  country, 
our  city,  our  town,  or  our  state.  It  cul- 
tivates a  love  for  Nature  and  of  our  own 
people,  and  it  makes  it  better  appreciated 
by  our  people  by  the  way  in  which  it 
appeals  to  those  who  have  not  seen  it  for 
many  years.  When  we  find  strangers  and 
our  kindred  coming  back  and  going  into 
rhapsodies  over  our  scenery  and  our 
beautiful  climate,  it  is  apt  to  make  us 
prize  it  more  highly,  and  be  more  con- 
tented and  be  better  satisfied  with  our  lot. 
The  tendency  of  Old  Home  Week  will 
be  to  draw  people  back  to  the  farms,  on 
to  the  soil,  away  from  the  crowded  cities, 
and  every  man  that  you  take  away  from 
the  city  and  plant  in  the  country  is  a  dis- 
tinct gain  to  civilization.  The  true  life  of 
man  is  lived  out  of  doors,  upon  the  soil, 
where  he  can  study  the  ways  of  plants 


54       OLD   HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

and  animals,  the  movements  of  the  hea- 
venly bodies,  and  get  close  to  Nature.  A 
man  can  have  no  particular  attachment  to 
a  house  designated  by  a  number  in  a  city 
street  in  a  row  of  brick  structures — it  has 
no  identity,  no  significance.  There  are 
no  sentimental  thoughts  attaching  to  it. 
But  no  matter  how  humble  may  be  the 
home  in  the  country;  with  its  surround- 
ings of  green  grass  and  tall  trees,  and 
songs  of  the  birds,  and  babbling  of  the 
brooks,  it  is  home;  it  has  a  significance; 
it  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  forgotten.  In 
such  a  place,  no  matter  how  inexpensive, 
no  matter  how  simple,  one  may  cultivate 
his  favorite  flowers ;  one  may  see  noble 
trees  spring  from  small  shoots  and  spread 
their  protecting  shade  -over  his  roof-tree  ; 
he  can  watch  for  the  returning  of  the 
birds  in  the  spring,  and  know  them  in 
their  habits  and  ways.  He  takes  a  par- 
ticular delight  in  pruning  and  in  grafting 
his  little  orchards ;  even  the  old  barn  has 
a  great  attraction  for  him ;  the  sweet 


AT  HANOVER.  55 

smell  of  the  hay,  the  deep  quiet  on  Sab- 
bath afternoons,  the  flight  of  the  swallows 
up  among  the  rafters,  the  stamping  of  the 
horses — all  have  a  meaning  to  him,  and  it 
is  perfectly  possible  for  a  man  who  has 
practically  lived  his  life  in  the  city  to  return 
once  more  and  take  up  the  life  of  his 
boyhood  and  enjoy  doubly  these  simple 
pleasures  because  he  has  been  deprived 
of  them  for  so  many  years. 

The  people  who  are  coming  back  to  us 
now,  more  and  more  rapidly  each  year, 
are  taking  up  the  old  farms  and  rebuild- 
ing the  old  homesteads,  giving  their  chil- 
dren the  benefits  of  a  closer  intimacy  with 
Nature ;  and  I  notice  that,  during  the 
winter,  they  find  it  possible  to  come  back 
for  Christmas,  or  Thanksgiving,  or  New 
Year's,  for  a  week  at  a  time,  to  enjoy  the 
delights  of  our  beautiful  New  England 
winters.  This  habit  will  grow  upon  them 
until  they  find  the  old  place  is  a  good 
place  to  stay  in  permanently.  In  other 
words,  they  will  reverse  the  order  of 


56       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

things  and  make  their  visits  to  the  city 
periodically,  or  as  infrequently  as  possi- 
ble. The  effect  of  this  is  going  to  be 
beneficial  to  the  resident  of  the  city,  and 
of  immense  importance  to  the  small  coun- 
try towns  of  our  state. 

It  has  been  my  idea  to  interest  the 
children  as  much  as  possible  in  these 
celebrations,  for  the  children,  who  will 
soon  be  men  and  women,  must  take  up 
this  custom  and  carry  it  on.  In  fact,  we 
seldom  realize  how  soon  the  children  of 
to-day  are  to  take  up  our  burdens  and 
the  responsibilities  of  life  and  of  govern- 
ment. They  should  be  made  to  feel  the 
full  value  of  the  occasion,  and  an  especial 
effort  should  be  made  to  appeal  to  what 
is  best  in  their  natures,  and  to  cultivate  in 
them  a  love  of  what  is  true,  and  good,  and 
beautiful  in  our  old  Granite  state. 

I  want  to  see  at  these  celebrations 
special  effort  made  to  gather  together 
historical  matter.  I  would  particularly 
like  to  see  historical  articles  prepared  for 


AT  HANOVER.  57 

such  days,  and  essays  upon  interesting 
subjects  of  local  history.  This  would 
have  great  significance  for  the  young,  and 
have  much  to  do  in  shaping  their  thoughts 
and  their  future  lives.  It  is  very  impor- 
tant to  teach  the  young  the  history  of 
their  own  locality,  of  their  own  state,  and 
their  own  country.  I  do  not  think  suffi- 
cient attention  has  been  given  to  local 
history  in  most  of  our  towns,  and  perhaps 
the  publication  of  histories  of  the  towns 
of  our  state,  which  would  be  immensely 
valuable  in  future  years,  would  result. 
History  has  always  been  thought  to  shed 
light  on  the  present,  to  point  the  way 
even  of  the  future,  to  be,  as  has  been  well 
and  strikingly  said,  "  philosophy  teaching 
by  example."  History  is  a  looking  both 
before  and  after,  and  to  teach  the  young 
the  history  of  the  noble  deeds  of  their 
ancestors  and  townspeople,  to  show  them 
how  the  commonwealth  or  municipality 
has  grown  from  nothing,  is  to  give  them 
knowledge  of  vast  importance,  and  to 


58        OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

teach  them  something  which  has  a  great 
bearing  upon  their  own  development.  I 
want  to  quote  a  passage  from  a  recent 
speech  upon  this  subject  by  the  Hon. 
Daniel  H.  Chamberlain,  ex-governor  of 
South  Carolina : 

This  sense  of  ancestry,  the  reverence,  as  I  may 
well  call  it,  for  history,  this  constant  looking  up  to 
great  things  in  the  past,  has  surely  been  the  spur 
and  inspiration  of  what  is  greatest  in  modern  lit- 
erature— in  the  poetry  of  Wordsworth  and  Tenny- 
son, the  greatest  names  among  English  poets, 
after  only  Shakespeare  and  Milton — in  the  elo- 
quence of  Burke  and  Webster,  unquestionably  of 
the  greatest  since  Demosthenes.  When  Webster 
replied  to  Hayne  in  that  speech  of  which  I  heard 
Abraham  Lincoln  say  in  1864:  "This  war  lias 
been  fought  on  Webster's  speech  in  reply  to 
Hayne  " — it  was  not  Webster  alone  who  spoke  ;  it 
was  all  New  England  ;  more,  it  was  the  conscious 
spirit  and  sentiment  of  our  whole  young  nation- 
ality;  more,  even,  it  was  the  voice  and  will  and 
pride  of  all  English  liberty  and  law  through  all  the 
centuries  since  the  consolidation  of  the  English 
monarchy  under  the  first  Plantagenet  King,  that 
spoke  through  the  heaven-touched  lips  of  the  ora- 
tor. It  was  a  mighty  intellect,  a  "God-gifted 


AT  HANOVER.  59 

organ  voice,"  penetrated,  uplifted,  sublimated  by 
the  power  of  history.  No  other  power  could  have 
given  us  that  speech — that  speech  with  "its  pas- 
sion and  pathos,"  as  a  recent  writer  has  said, 
"its  majestic  rhythm  and  cadenced  harmonies, 
rising  and  sinking  like  a  grand  organ  roll  or  the 
thunder  of  the  sea,  and  finally  the  magnificent  sun- 
burst of  gorgeous  imagery  with  which  it  ends." 

And  so  I  say,  teach  the  children  the 
history  of  our  towns,  the  history  of  their 
forbears ;  bring  to  their  minds  emphati- 
cally the  good  deeds  done  by  their  ances- 
tors, the  hardships  they  endured,  and 
show  them  the  object  for  which  they  en- 
dured their  hardships,  and  you  will  do 
these  young  people  among  us  a  great 
favor  and  you  will  help  in  the  upbuilding 
of  our  state. 

I  should  like  to  say  to  the  boys  of  this 
state,  and  I  wish  I  had  the  eloquence  of  a 
Webster  with  which  to  say  it  and  to  bring 
it  home  to  the  inner  recesses  of  their 
hearts,  that  there  are  just  as  good  oppor- 
tunities for  success  and  for  life  in  this  good 
old  state  of  New  Hampshire  to-day  as  there 


60       OLD   HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

were  fifty  or  a  hundred  years  ago.  I  do 
not  care  what  people  say  to  the  contrary. 
I  believe  it  to  be  a  fact  that  if  a  boy  has 
the  right  stuff  in  him,  he  can  succeed  in 
New  Hampshire  to-day,  materially,  politi- 
cally, or  in  any  other  way,  just  as  well  as 
he  could  fifty  years  ago.  It  lies  in  the 
boy's  hands,  it  is  within  his  reach ;  and  I 
wish  I  could  do  something  to  inspire  and 
stimulate  them  to  make  the  effort.  We 
are  constantly  turning  out  boys  of  the 
best  calibre,  who  fail  to  see  these  oppor- 
tunities near  home,  and  use  their  splendid 
abilities  and  their  rugged  constitutions  in 
the  service  of  other  states  rather  than  of 
this  state  which  we  all  so  love.  Don't 
wait  for  the  opportunity  but  seek  it.  Read 
biographies.  There  you  will  see  how 
men  have  found  success,  how  they  have 
created  success,  how  they  have  forced 
success  from  the  very  earth  itself,  and 
simply  by  the  force  of  character  and  in- 
domitable will.  Given  good  health,  a 
good  constitution,  pluck,  strong  character, 


AT  HANOVER.  6 1 

and  I  will  guarantee  as  much  success 
here  in  New  Hampshire  as  anywhere  in 
the  world.  Make  the  occasion  by  your 
efforts.  No  matter  how  small  the  oppor- 
tunity may  seem,  put  the  best  of  yourself 
into  everything  you  do,  and  the  first  you 
know  somebody  will  grasp  you  by  the 
hand  and  pull  you  up  on  the  front  seat  on 
the  band  wagon. 

The  new  is  supplanting  the  old.  The 
machinery  of  ten  years  ago  must  soon  be 
sold  to  make  room  for  something  more 
efficient.  The  methods  of  our  fathers  are 
daily  giving  place  to  better  systems. 
Those  who  have  devoted  their  lives  to 
the  cause  of  labor  and  progress  are  con- 
stantly falling  in  the  ranks,  and  as  the 
struggle  grows  more  intense,  men  and 
women  of  even  stronger  hands  and  truer 
hearts  are  needed  to  take  the  place  in  the 
battle  of  life.  You  must  not  sit  with 
folded  hands  asking  God's  aid  in  work  for 
which  he  has  already  given  you  the  neces- 
sary facilities  and  strength. 


62        OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

Privileges  are  handed  out  to  you  here 
with  a  free  hand  for  which  your  fore- 
fathers had  to  toil  and  sweat  and  struggle. 
Instead  of  having  to  travel  forty  miles  to 
get  a  copy  of  Blackstone,  as  Abraham 
Lincoln  did,  you  can  find  the  best  of 
books  in  every  town  in  the  state,  and  the 
standard  works  of  all  time  can  be  bought 
for  a  song.  Instead  of  reading  by  the 
pine  torch  or  the  tallow  dip  late  at  night, 
you  have  every  facility  for  a  complete  and 
full  education.  Instead  of  having  to 
travel  miles  in  slow  coaches,  or  on  foot,  to 
hear  a  lecture  or  see  a  theatrical  perform- 
ance, such  entertainments  and  such  ad- 
vantages are  every  winter  brought  to  your 
very  doors. 

Do  n't  think  because  you  are  poor 
that  you  do  not  have  opportunities,  that 
you  have  no  chances  for  success.  "  You 
are  on  a  level  now,"  as  Dr.  Talmage  has 
well  said,  "  with  those  who  are  finally  to 
succeed."  Mark  my  words,  and  think  of 
them  thirty  years  from  now.  You  will 


AT  HANOVER.  63 

find  that  those,  thirty  years  from  now, 
who  are  the  millionaires  of  this  country, 
who  are  the  authors  of  this  country,  who 
are  the  poets  of  this  country,  who  are  the 
strong  merchants  of  this  country,  who  are 
the  great  philanthropists  of  this  country, 
mightiest  in  church  and  state,  are  on  a 
level  with  you,  not  an  inch  above  you,  and 
in  straitened  circumstances  now.  Your 
capital,  your  outfit,  is  your  own  good 
heart  and  head  and  hands.  An  English 
author  has  said  that  "  a  little  gray  cabin 
appears  to  be  the  birthplace  of  all  your 
great  men."  O.  S.  Marden,  of  New  York, 
says  that  with  five  chances  on  each  hand 
and  one  unwavering  aim,  no  boy,  however 
poor,  need  despair.  "  There  is  bread  and 
success  for  every  youth  under  the  Ameri- 
can flag  who  has  energy  and  ability  to 
seize  his  opportunity."  If  he  is  dominated 
by  resolute  purpose  and  upholds  himself, 
neither  man  nor  demons  can  keep  him 
down.  The  world  always  listens  to  a  man 
with  a  will  in  him.  You  cannot  hold  back 


64       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

such  men  as  Abraham  Lincoln,  Garfield, 
and  many  others  I  might  name.  The 
great  majority  of  men  lack  courage  and 
faith  and  decision,  and  go  down  as  wrecks 
instead  of  sailing  grandly  into  port  as  they 
might  have  done. 

Make  the  best  use  of  your  time.  Put 
in  the  odd  moments  in  reading.  Henry 
Wilson  read  a  thousand  books  before  he 
was  twenty-one.  Many  a  man  has  edu- 
cated himself  in  this  way,  and  made  a 
success.  Even  an  hour  a  day  put  in  in 
reading,  or  some  profitable  employment, 
will  produce  wonderful  results.  If  you 
have  a  hobby,  and  a  good  hobby,  ride  it. 
No  matter  what  your  present  occupation 
may  be,  or  what  you  are  forced  to  do,  if 
you  have  the  inclination,  or  the  bent,  for 
a  particular  thing,  follow  it  in  all  the  spare 
time  you  can  get,  and  sooner  or  later  you 
will  master  it  and  become  an  authority 
upon  it,  and  then  your  fortune  is  made. 

Just  think  what  an  opportunity  New 
Hampshire  boys  have  in  this  magnificent 


AT  HANOVER.  65 

college  which  makes  its  home  in  this  his- 
toric town  of  Hanover.  The  history  of 
this  old  college  itself  is  well  worth  study. 
You  have  opportunities  right  here  almost 
for  nothing,  which  would  have  gladdened 
the  heart  of  men  like  Daniel  Webster. 
The  Dartmouth  College  of  to-day  is  far  in 
advance  of  the  Dartmouth  College  of 
Webster's  time.  Here  are  gathered  to- 
gether for  your  advantage  some  of  the 
greatest  minds  of  this  country — men  who 
have  devoted  all  the  years  of  their  man- 
hood to  study  and  research — for  what? 
For  you.  Here  are  gathered  together 
men  who  have  traveled  the  world  over, 
seeking  his  secrets,  mastering  the  sciences 
for  what?  For  you.  Here  are  gathered 
together  gentlemen  of  the  best  kind,  of 
the  greatest  rank — gentlemen  who  have 
made  courtesy  and  behaviour  a  study — 
for  what?  For  you.  Here  stands  to-day 
one  of  the  greatest  institutions  of  learning, 
built  up  by  the  savings  and  the  self-abne- 
gations of  the  people — built  up  by  the 


66       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

strenuous  efforts  of  self-consecrated  men — 
for  what?  For  you.  Now  will  you  not  reach 
out  and  take  what  is  so  freely  offered  you? 
Will  you  not  make  the  most  of  these 
noble  opportunities?  Will  you  not  con- 
secrate yourselves  to  New  Hampshire,  and 
while  bringing  success  to  your  own  name, 
give  an  added  lustre  to  the  old  Granite 
state  ? 


CONCORD, 


AUGUST  17,  1900. 


AT  CONCORD. 

We  are  gathered  here  to  celebrate  the 
second  Old  Home  Week.  Last  year  it 
was  an  experiment — this  year  it  is  an  es- 
tablished fact,  an  established  custom  or 
institution.  I  need  hardly  say  that  it  is  a 
matter  of  deep  gratification  to  me  that  the 
idea  has  met  hearty  recognition,  and  that 
it  bids  fair  to  do  so  much  for  New  Hamp- 
shire. We  were  more  than  successful  last 
year  in  calling  back  to  the  old  hearthstone 
those  who  had  wandered  afar  and  joined 
their  fortunes  to  those  of  other  common- 
wealths. Every  town  received  its  quota 
of  returning  children  with  wide-open  arms, 
and  I  venture  to  say  that  these  occasions 
were  the  happiest,  the  merriest,  as  well  as 
the  saddest,  ever  celebrated  in  any  of 
those  ancient  hamlets  since  they  were 
hewn  and  carved  out  of  the  primeval 
forest. 


70       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

Not  all  of  those  who  returned  to  us  on 
Old  Home  Week  went  away  again.  There 
were  some  here  and  there  to  whom  the 
sight  of  old  friends,  the  hand-grasp  of 
early  associates,  the  visits  to  boyhood's 
scenes,  acted  like  a  magnet  and  they  were 
not  able  to  withstand  the  pleadings  of 
their  renewed  youth.  They  have  come 
back  to  us  permanently;  have  taken  up 
the  old  homestead,  and  will  close  their 
eyes  on  the  same  hills  which  smiled  upon 
their  birth.  I  could  give  you  a  long  list 
of  such  cases,  and  a  longer  one  where 
directly  and  indirectly  the  celebration  has 
resulted  in  good  to  our  towns.  And  what 
shall  we  say  of  the  good  brought  to  the 
individual,  to  our  own  people?  Who  can 
tell  of  the  renewed  hope,  the  renewed 
courage,  the  broader  outlook,  the  higher 
ideals,  inspired  by  the  gentle  optimism  of 
love  and  kinship?  We  learn  that  we  are 
not  forgotten,  that  the  pulse  of  all  those 
who  are  scattered  over  the  world  still 
beats  true  to  their  native  state. 


AT  CONCORD.  71 

' '  Forget  New  Hampshire  ?     Let  Kearsarge  forget 

to  greet  the  sun  ; 
Connecticut  forsake  the  sea ;    the  Shoals   their 

breakers  shun, 
But  fervently,  while  life  shall  last,  tho'  wide  our 

ways  decline, 
Back  to  the  Mountain-Land  our  hearts  will  turn 

as  to  a  shrine.'1 

Dr.  Tucker  said  last  year  that  every 
state  holds  sovereignty  over  its  kindred 
wherever  they  may  go.  It  seems  to  me 
that  this  is  particularly  true  of  New  Hamp- 
shire. Am  I  deceived,  am  I  overpartial 
in  thinking  that  the  son  of  New  Hamp- 
shire loves  his  mother  state  more  fervently 
than  the  son  of  any  other  state?  I  am 
not  deceived ;  I  am  not  over-partial.  I 
honestly  believe  it  is  so.  And  it  is  not 
quite  clear  to  the  outsider  why  it  is  so. 
Most  of  the  children  reared  in  this  state 
have  been  reared  among  scenes  of  toil ; 
their  lives  were  not  all  rosy  as  the  dawns 
which  swept  over  the  eastern  hills  as  they 
drove  their  cows  to  pasture.  Life  was  a 
struggle,  but  sweetened  by  loving  counsel, 


72        OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

sage  advice  and  wholesome  example. 
Then,  too,  while  the  soil  was  cold  and  un- 
ready to  give  up  its  secrets,  life  was  lived 
amidst  the  most  beautiful  scenery  and  sur- 
roundings. They  became  art  lovers  and 
idealists  without  knowing  it,  and  the  pic- 
tures of  those  early  scenes  and  surround- 
ings are  indelibly  photographed  on  their 
brains  and  whenever  they  are  brain-weary 
or  discouraged  or  ill,  there  comes  sweep- 
ing back  this  picture,  and  their  feet  turn 
involuntarily  toward  the  old  hill  farm. 
There,  they  know,  is  peace,  there  is  balm, 
there  is  healing.  There  is  where  they 
sought  the  protection  of  mother-love,  and 
the  soothing  hand,  when  o'erwhelmed  by 
childhood's  pains  and  troubles,  and  there 
still,  although  the  real  mother  may  have 
long  since  passed  to  her  well-earned  rest, 
is  Mother  Nature  ever  ready  to  soothe  the 
wanderer  and  nurse  him  back  to  health 
and  vigor.  "Home"  and  "Mother"  are 
the  two  sweetest,  tenderest  words  in  the 
English  language,  more  dear  to  all  true  men 


AT  CONCOKD.  73 

and  women  than  all  other  words,  and  the 
two  are  intertwined  and  indissolubly 
blended.  You  cannot  think  of  one  with- 
out the  other;  so  when  we  ask  you  to 
come  home,  it  is  your  mother's  voice  ;  and 
though  she  may  not  be  here  to  greet  you, 
the  sweet  memories  and  dear  recollections 
will  partially  take  her  place. 

"  The  night  shall  be  filled  with  music, 
And  the  cares  that  infest  the  day 
Shall  fold  their  tents  like  the  Arabs 
And  silently  steal  away." 

One  of  the  benefits  to  be  hoped  for,  and 
indeed  already  accomplished,  in  some  de- 
gree, is  a  reawakening  of  pride.  Now 
pride  is  a  great  thing,  a  great  incentive,  a 
great  preventive,  whether  it  is  pride  of  an- 
cestry, pride  of  locality,  pride  of  state,  or 
pride  of  accomplishment.-  A  person,  a 
community,  or  a  state  without  pride  sel- 
dom amounts  to  anything.  Pride  in  the 
individual  incites  to  emulation  of  the  mer- 
itorious acts  of  one's  predecessors,  pre- 
vents bad  habits  for  fear  of  tarnishing  the 


74       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

family  name,  and  is  a  constant  check  and 
"  exciter."  In  a  community  it  leads  to 
local  improvement  and  municipal  advance  ; 
it  builds  roads;  it  cares  for  the  trees;  it 
provides  libraries  and  schools,  and  it 
watches  over  the  fame  of  its  children.  In 
the  state  it  bands  men  together  for  de- 
fense, or  it  leads  them  in  the  path  of  pro- 
gress, and  it  arouses  a  healthy  rivalry  with 
sister  states.  One  of  the  chief  troubles 
with  some  of  our  oldest  country  towns  of 
late  years  has  been  that  their  pride  was 
dormant,  sleeping.  In  several  instances 
Old  Home  Week  has  aroused  this  pride, 
and  the  results  have  been  magical.  The 
true  born  Yankee  is  as  full  of  pride  and 
independence  as  he  can  stick  and  as  long 
as  it  is  active  he  and  his  community  are 
pretty  sure  to  go  right ;  but  let  it  get  rusty 
and  the  results  are  direful.  The  coming 
back  of  so  many  old  residents  to  compare 
the  present  with  the  past,  to  encourage,  to 
incite,  to  give  the  helping  hand,  has  given 
this  pride  a  tonic,  and  stiffened  some  back- 


AT  CONCORD.  75 

bones  which  had  grown  lax  and  flexible. 
Instead  of  waiting  to  see  what  will  drop 
into  their  laps,  some  of  these  towns,  like 
New  Hampton,  are  reaching  out  eagerly 
to  grasp  the  rich  fruits  which  lie  so  readily 
at  hand,  only  waiting  to  be  plucked. 

The  world  is  ready  to  cheer  on  and  as- 
sist any  one  who  is  willing  to  work  cheer- 
fully himself.  If  we  sit  down  and  simply 
bemoan  our  present  troubles,  and  point 
sadly  to  our  glorious  past,  we  shall  get 
little  help  or  sympathy.  It  is  a  world  of 
activity,  and  if  we  would  keep  abreast 
of  the  times,  we  must  be  up  and  doing. 
We  must  watch  the  trend  of  events ;  we 
must  seize  our  opportunity  as  it  gallops  by, 
and,  springing  into  the  saddle,  ride  to 
achievement.  And  I  might  add  that  op- 
portunity is  galloping  by  our  New  Hamp- 
shire towns  with  their  matchless  scenery 
and  superb  summer  climate,  all  the  time. 

We  must  awake  as  a  state,  as  communi- 
ties, as  individuals.  We  must  not  let  the 
golden  opportunity  escape  us.  Within  the 


76       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

memory  of  most  mature  people  present, 
the  summer  resorts  of  the  country  consisted 
of  the  White  Mountains,  Saratoga,  Long 
Branch,  and  a  few  others,  and  the  White 
Mountains  was  the  leader.  To-day  the 
country  is  full  of  summer  resorts.  Then, 
Maine  was  hardly  known  in  that  capac- 
ity. The  Adirondacks  were  a  wilderness, 
Bar  Harbor  a  fishing  village,  Atlantic 
City  a  sand  dune,  and  so  on.  People  used 
to  drive  from  New  York  to  our  White  Hills 
in  their  own  carriages.  Now  we  have  to 
compete  with  new  resorts  all  the  time,  and 
not  only  that,  but  we  are  competing  with 
states  able  and  willing  to  spend  money  to 
build  up  that  business.  Massachusetts  has 
spent  $3,000,000  in  the  last  six  years  in 
building  magnificent  roads.  New  Jersey 
has  spent  about  $800,000.  Maine  spends 
annually  $75,000  for  protecting  her  fish 
and  game.  New  York  has  made  a  great 
park  of  the  Adirondacks,  and  of  Niagara, 
forever  to  be  protected.  What  have  we 
done?  Not  one  dollar  for  good  roads;  a 


AT  CONCORD.  77 

very  small  sum  annually,  $8,000,  for  the 
fish  and  game,  and  no  protection  to  our 
forests.  We  are  sitting  idly  by  while  the 
lumberman  strips  us  of  our  best  and  most 
valuable  asset.  The  great  White  Moun- 
tains are  being  denuded  and  burned  over, 
and  the  summer  tourist  turns  away  in  sad- 
ness and  disgust  from  loved  scenes  and 
localities.  This  must  stop.  You  must 
arise  in  your  majesty  for  your  own  protec- 
tion, and  put  the  heavy  hand  of  authority 
upon  these  people.  Some  one  will  say, 
"We  can't  afford  to  spend  money  for 
these  things."  I  am  tired  of  hearing 
that.  You  can't  afford  not  to.  If 
you  had  a  well  and  it  was  the  only  well 
available,  and  it  was  being  polluted  and 
could  only  be  saved  by  spending  a  lot  of 
money,  would  you  hesitate,  or  would  you 
let  your  family  be  contaminated  to  save  a 
few  dollars?  But  we  are  not  poor;  we 
don't  owe  anything  to  speak  of.  Why, 
there  are  many  towns  and  cities  in  this 
country  with  20,000  inhabitants,  which 


78        OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

owe  more  money  than  we  do.  In  1905 
we  shall  be  practically  out  of  debt  at  the 
present  rate  of  payment.  A  large  por- 
tion of  the  towns  receive  to-day  from  the 
state  more  than  they  pay  in  state  tax,  so  I 
say  the  state  tax  to-day  is  no  burden,  and 
would  not  be  if  it  were  three  times  as 
large. 

The  business  man  who  succeeds  to-day 
must  push  and  hustle.  He  must  advertise 
and  spend  money,  or  he  is  "left  at  the 
post."  It  is  true  also  of  states  and  towns. 
What  would  I  do?  I  would  spend  a  mil- 
lion dollars  in  good  roads,  distributed  over 
a  term  of  years.  I  would  give  the  fish 
and  game  commission  $50,000  a  year  if 
necessary,  rather  than  $8,000.  I  would 
make  a  park  of  the  White  Mountains  and 
of  Lake  Winnipesaukee  and  protect  them 
from  ruin.  In  other  words,  a  liberal  ex- 
penditure now  is  the  greatest  economy  for 
the  future.  The  state  sold  thousands  of 
acres  of  timber  land  a  few  years  ago  for 
$25,000.  What  is  it  worth  to-day?  Hun- 


AT  CONCORD.  79 

dreds  of  thousands.  We  are  throwing 
away  an  opportunity  not  to  be  regained  if 
we  do  n't  act  soon.  The  purchase  of  this 
timber  land  for  a  park  is  a  good  invest- 
ment, if  nothing  else. 

During  this  week  from  where  the  white 
waves  lap  the  sands  of  Rye  to  the  pine- 
clad  forests  of  Canada,  from  the  winding 
of  the  Saco  to  the  intervales  of  the  Con- 
necticut, there  is  merrymaking  and  glad 
reunion.  Old  friends  are  recounting  the 
thousand  incidents  of  childhood,  valueless 
to  the  world,  priceless  to  them.  Old  places 
see  again  the  well-remembered  faces. 
Beside  the  ocean,  in  the  cooling  shade  of 
hillside  groves,  under  the  whispering  pines 
of  the  lake  shore,  I  can  see  them  in  my 
mind's  eye.  The  past  is  renewed,  the 
present  discussed,  and  the  future  predicted. 

The  late  lamented  Charles  H.  Bartlett 
eloquently  said :  "It  is  often  said  of  all 
New  Hampshire  born  that  they  carry  New 
Hampshire  thoughts,  ideas,  and  principles 
with  them  wherever  they  go.  No  child  of 


8o       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

hers  ever  roamed  so  wide  as  not  to  feel  in 
his  heart  of  hearts  that  he  was  still  within 
the  shadow  of  her  mountain  peaks. 

"  Out  of  her  borders  many  have  gone  to 
wage  life's  battle,  but  never  yet  one  out  of 
her  heart.  Behind  the  departing  she  shuts 
no  door.  She  keeps  the  lamp  burning  in 
the  window,  and  builds  her  beacon  fires  on 
all  her  heights  as  a  standing,  loving  invita- 
tion to  come  back  again  when  ambition 
has  had  her  fill  to  be  registered  anew  in 
the  ever  swelling  catalogue  of  her  precious 
jewels." 

The  homes  of  New  Hampshire  are  the 
true  source  of  our  greatness.  It  is  from 
these  Christian  homes  that  have  gone  forth 
the  thousands  of  men  whose  names  are  on 
the  country's  scroll  of  fame.  Their  suc- 
cess is  due  in  no  small  degree  to  the 
moulding  of  character  at  the  hands  of 
God-fearing,  God-loving  parents ;  to  the 
habits  of  industry  and  thrift  inculcated  by 
those  who  knew  what  hardship  and  self- 
abnegation  meant;  and  to  that  respect  and 


AT  CONCORD.  8 1 

reverence  for  holy  things  and  constituted 
authority  now  frequently  noticeable  by  its 
absence.  If  we  would  continue  to  pour 
forth  this  stream  of  strong,  fearless,  master- 
ful manhood,  we  must  look  to  the  homes — 
we  must  keep  our  standards  high,  our 
ideals  pure — we  must  not  allow  the  waves 
of  scepticism  and  materialism  to  swamp 
our  natural  inheritance  of  steadfastness  to 
truth  and  our  God.  Let  us  not  be  ashamed 
to  acknowledge  our  reliance  on  a  superior 
being,  our  belief  in  the  beautiful  teachings 
of  Christ.  Let  us  recognize  our  dependence, 
and  let  us  support  the  church,  which  is  the 
backbone  of  the  home.  Instead  of  spend- 
ing our  time  in  denominational  strife,  let 
us  concentrate  our  efforts.  If  the  town  is 
too  small  and  poor  for  several  churches, 
join  hands  in  the  hearty  support  of  one, 
throwing  aside  non-essentials  of  church 
government,  if  necessary,  for  the  true  es- 
sentials, the  heart  and  core  of  Christ's 
teachings  through  which  "  we  live  and  move 
and  have  our  being." 


MONT  VERNON, 

AUGUST   19,  1900. 


AT  MONT  VERNON. 

It  was  my  great  privilege  one  year  ago 
to  see  our  first  Old  Home  Week  most 
auspiciously  inaugurated  in  this  beautiful 
village  of  Mont  Vernon,  as  it  is  also  my 
privilege  to  meet  with  you  again  for  the 
concluding  exercises  of  the  second  festival. 
The  Old  Home  days  which  have  been  cel- 
ebrated within  the  bounds  of  my  two  visits 
are  a  matter  of  very  interesting  history  for 
me,  and  I  trust  for  all  who  are  thoughtful  of 
the  fame  and  the  fortunes  of  the  old  Granite 
state.  With  fifty  festivals  in  1899  we 
thought  a  great  deal  had  been  accom- 
plished ;  with  twice  that  number  this  year, 
we  ought  certainly  to  feel  that  a  very  high 
standard  has  been  set  for  Old  Home  Day 
observances  in  New  Hampshire,  or  in  any 
other  state.  In  my  earliest  conception  of 
such  a  festival  I  thought  I  had  grasped  its 
full  meaning  and  I  was  hopeful  of  its  ac- 


86       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

complishing  much  for  the  state  I  love,  but 
within  a  scant  twelve  months  I  have  seen 
my  most  sanguine  anticipations  more  than 
realized.  In  groups  of  tens  and  in  crowds 
of  tens  of  thousands  the  praises  of  the  old 
New  Hampshire  homes  have  been  sung; 
and  the  glad  notes  of  the  reunion  anthems 
have  been  echoed  and  re-echoed  to  the 
remotest  portions  of  this  vast  land  wherever 
New  Hampshire's  sons  and  daughters  are. 
Our  amazement  at  the  response  to  the 
home  call  is  not  less  at  the  number  who 
have  acknowledged  it  as  a  personal  mes- 
sage than  at  the  spirit  of  grateful  appreci- 
ation with  which  it  has  been  received.  If 
the  roll  of  the  army  of  absent  ones  could 
be  called,  name  for  name,  the  answer  could 
hardly  have  been  more  prompt  or  more 
emphatic  than  has  been  the  written  and 
spoken  "  Present "  which  has  sounded  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  from  the  north- 
ern boundary  to  the  southern  coast  line,  in 
response  to  the  words,  "  New  Hampshire's 
children."  Greater  loyalty  for  the  mother 


A  T  MOArT  VERNON.  87 

state  with  all  the  words  imply  of  filial  affec- 
tion, of  civic  pride,  of  imperishable  mem- 
ories, I  cannot  imagine.  If  the  only  result 
of  Old  Home  Week  had  been  to  show  the 
grateful  remembrance  in  which  the  mother 
state  is  held  by  all  her  absent  children,  I 
believe  its  mission  would  have  been  a  grand 
one.  And  yet  this  is  only  one  phase  of 
the  question. 

All  the  lessons  which  might  be  drawn 
from  our  two  Old  Home  Weeks  could  not 
be  recited  in  the  limits  of  such  an  address 
as  this,  nor  is  it  necessary  to  briefly  refer 
to  all  of  them  in  Mont  Vernon,  where  the 
true  spirit  of  the  festival  was  divined  so 
early  and  so  thoroughly.  The  manner  in 
which  our  people  have  acted  the  host  has 
been  to  the  lasting  credit  of  the  state. 
Words  cannot  frame  heartier  welcomes 
than  have  been  extended  to  all  who  have 
come.  Hospitality  more  genuine  and 
graceful  cannot  be  imagined  than  that  of 
Old  Home  Week  in  New  Hampshire. 
Those  who  have  given  and  those  who  have 


88        OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

received  have  been  made  the   better  and 
the  happier  by  its  experiences. 

I  am  trying  to  avoid  at  this  time  a  gen- 
eral discussion  of  the  Old  Home  theme, 
but  I  am  tempted  to  quote  from  an  edito- 
rial of  the  Nashua  Daily  Telegraph,  a 
few  words  concerning  one  of  the  many 
benefits  which  I  believe  the  festival  can  and 
does  confer.  It  says  :  "  Not  the  least  ben- 
efit which  New  Hampshire  will  derive  from 
the  Old  Home  Week  will  be  the  mental 
stimulus  which  it  will  give  our  people. 
The  people  who  have  gone  from  us  have, 
without  doubt,  advanced  more  rapidly 
through  their  contact  with  the  world  than 
those  who  have  remained  by  the  old 
hearthstone.  In  coming  back  to  the  state, 
even  for  the  brief  space  of  a  summer  vaca- 
tion, much  of  this  mental  broadening  will 
have  its  effect  upon  those  with  whom  they 
come  into  contact.  The  mind  of  the  stay- 
at-home  will  be  made  more  alert  to  receive 
the  new  and  different  ideas  of  the  visitor, 
and  out  of  self-pride  he  will  make  an  excr- 


A  T  MONT  VERNON.  89 

tion  which  will  be  beneficial.  If  meeting 
with  old  acquaintances  who  have  found 
other  homes  \*  not  equal  to  a  journey  into 
the  world,  it  is  the  next  thing  to  it,  and  the 
amount  of  pleasure  which  New  Hampshire 
visitors  will  receive  from  a  revival  of  old 
memories  and  a  renewal  of  old  acquaint- 
anceships will  be  more  than  balanced  by 
the  broadening  influences  which  they  will 
have  on  the  lives  of  those  who  have  re- 
mained with  us.  Outside  of  our  public 
schools,  newspapers,  and  libraries,  we 
doubt  if  there  has  been  any  influence  at 
work  among  us  that  will  produce  better 
results  for  our  people  than  this  Old  Home 
Week  movement." 

With  the  pleasant  experiences  of  my  Old 
Home  Day  travels,  which  have  taken  me 
into  all  parts  of  the  state,  I  have  become 
more  firmly  convinced  than  ever  that  the 
people  of  the  New  Hampshire  of  to-day 
are  courageous,  enterprising,  intelligent, 
prosperous.  The  Old  Home  gatherings 
with  which  I  have  mingled  have  been  made 


90       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

up  of  men,  women,  and  children  whose 
appearance,  interest,  and  appreciation 
might  be  compared  advantageously  with 
those  of  like  bodies  of  people  in  any  state 
in  this  broad  land,  and  of  course  that  char- 
acterization means  that  no  country  in  the 
world  can  furnish  a  higher  standard  by 
which  this  question  of  superiority  can  be 
determined.  I  have  seen  the  homes  of 
people  of  wealth,  of  those  of  moderate 
means,  and  of  those  in  humble  circumstan- 
ces, but  I  have  found  evidences  of  thrift  and 
contentment  and  happiness  in  all.  I  am 
certain  that  the  health-giving  climate,  the 
beautiful  hills,  the  grand  mountains,  are 
appreciated  by  our  people  no  less  than  by 
those  who  tarry  with  us  for  the  vacation 
season.  I  know  that  the  love  of  home  is 
as  strong  with  the  men  and  women  of  New 
Hampshire  to-day  as  it  is  with  any  people 
in  the  world.  I  know  that  the  spirit  of 
genuine  hospitality  and  true  fellowship 
reigns  in  the  villages  and  hamlets  of  New 
Hampshire  as  certainly  as  anywhere  upon 


AT  MONT  VERNON.  91 

this  green  earth.  The  ties  of  kindred  hold 
nowhere  more  strongly  than  here ;  the 
mantle  of  charity  rests  nowhere  more 
sweetly.  The  welfare  of  community  and 
commonwealth  is  nowhere  nearer  to  the 
heart  of  the  citizen,  and  no  people  are 
more  willing  to  make  sacrifices  for  the  up- 
holding of  our  institutions. 

I  hope  that  on  this  occasion  it  may  not 
be  inappropriate  for  me  to  say  a  word  rel- 
ative to  the  place  in  our  communities  which 
our  summer  residents  are  filling,  as  indi- 
cated to  me  by  their  most  helpful  participa- 
tion in  the  events  of  Old  Home  Week.  I 
am  sure  that  one  lesson  which  the  festival 
has  helped  to  teach  us  is  that  no  class  of 
people  are  more  earnest  in  seeking  the 
promotion  of  all  good  works  than  are  our 
summer  residents,  whether  to  the  manor 
born  or  children  of  other  states.  I  can 
point  to  many  instances  where  the  advent 
of  the  summer  visitor  has  meant  generous 
giving  for  public  improvements  which 
make  for  bettered  social,  commercial,  and 


9 2  OLD  HOME  ADDRESSES. 

religious  conditions,  not  merely  for  the 
months  of  the  vacation  season,  but  through- 
out the  year.  I  have  driven  during  the 
past  few  days  over  as  fine  highways  as  can 
be  enjoyed  anywhere,  which  have  been  put 
in  their  present  excellent  condition  through 
the  public  spirit  of  the  summer  resident. 
I  have  enjoyed  scenes  of  forest  beauty 
which  but  for  the  thoughtfulness  of  the 
summer  resident  would  have  gone  down 
before  the  axe  of  the  despoiler  with  the 
first  advance  in  the  lumber  market.  I  have 
been  present  at  exercises  in  public  halls 
where  the  barn-like  bareness  of  former 
years  has  given  place  to  adornment  and 
comfort  at  the  bidding  of  the  summer  resi- 
dent. I  have  been  entertained  with  the 
rarest  courtesy  and  the  most  gratifying 
hospitality  in  homes  which  would  have  had 
no  place  within  our  state  but  for  the  pres- 
ence of  the  summer  resident.  I  have  been 
taken  into  the  confidence  of  some  of  these 
summer  residents  and  have  been  told  of 
interest,  attachment,  and  appreciation 


AT  MONT  VERNON.  93 

which  promise  to  bear  rich  fruit  in  years  to 
come.  I  have  seen  with  great  gratification 
the  cordial  relations  which  exist  between 
the  permanent  inhabitants  of  our  towns 
and  the  class  whom  we  are  wont  to  term 
our  summer  population,  and  noted  signs 
of  mutual  helpfulness  and  appreciation.  I 
have  had  the  strongest  sort  of  proof  that 
the  prosperity  of  New  Hampshire  as  a  state 
of  summer  entertainment  is  but  a  small 
fraction  to-day  of  what  it  is  destined  to  be 
if  our  people  continue  their  present  policy 
of  hearty  encouragement  and  cordial  co- 
operation as  I  am  sure  they  will. 

I  have  learned  to  think  that  New  Hamp- 
shire is  about  ready  to  go  out  of  business 
as  an  abandoned  farm  state  and  to  put  out 
in  place  of  the  old  sign  a  new  and  more 
attractive  one,  which  shall  let  the  world 
know  that  the  best  homes  on  earth  for 
summer  enjoyment  or  permanent  occu- 
pancy are  for  sale  here,  and  that  our  peo- 
ple so  fully  appreciate  the  advantages  to 
communities  from  the  incoming  of  the 


94       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

class  of  home  seekers  who  are  making  our 
state  a  great  summer  resting-place  and 
playground,  that  not  only  is  Monday  a 
bargain  day,  as  in  the  great  department 
stores,  but  every  other  day  in  the  week  is 
a  bargain  day  as  well.  I  make  this  sug- 
gestion with  full  appreciation  of  the  great 
benefits  which  the  abandoned  farm  agita- 
tion of  a  few  years  ago  has  brought  to  the 
state  by  retenanting  so  many  places  which 
have  lacked  customers  because  the  fact  of 
their  existence  could  not  be  made  known 
outside  their  immediate  neighborhood, 
while  purchasers  must  be  sought  from 
abroad.  I  would  have  the  admirable 
work  of  the  commissioner  of  immigration 
continued  along  much  the  same  lines  as 
in  the  past,  but  I  would  have  it  done  with 
especial  reference  to  the  summer  homes. 
Just  now  the  name  of  home  is  synonymous 
with  that  of  New  Hampshire  in  the  minds 
of  newspaper  and  magazine  readers  far 
and  wide,  and  it  is  appropriate  that  it  be 
put  to  material  use  if  it  can  be  done. 


AT  MONT   VERNON.  95 

Our  stock  of  "marked-down  goods"  in 
the  farm  line  is  pretty  well  reduced.  Most 
of  the  properties  which  it  includes  are 
admirably  adapted  to  the  purposes  of  sum- 
mer homes.  The  centralization  of  popu- 
lation in  the  villages,  nearer  the  markets 
and  schools  and  places  of  employment, 
has  called  the  families  from  the  hilltops 
which  afford  just  the  attractive  views,  the 
bracing  air,  and  the  restful  solitude  which 
those  who  seek  to  escape  the  stifling, 
noisy  city  most  appreciate. 

I  have  learned  from  my  Old  Home 
Week  experiences  to  wish  that  we  might 
bring  together  for  a  day  or  two  each  year, 
in  some  central  place,  representatives  of 
our  great  summer  population  for  a  con- 
ference touching  the  questions  which  most 
deeply  affect  the  interests  of  our  state  as  a 
place  of  vacation  homes.  We  are  hon- 
ored by  the  presence,  as  regular  visitors 
to  our  state,  of  many  of  the  leaders  of  this 
country  in  wealth,  learning,  and  influence, 
and  all  are  interested  in  questions  affecting 


96       OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

our  social,  moral,  and  civil  conditions. 
The  views  of  these  men  on  the  great  ques- 
tions of  the  preservation  of  our  forests,  the 
improvement  of  our  highways,  the  foster- 
ing of  those  resources  which  make  for  the 
pleasure  of  the  sportsman  and  the  nat- 
uralist, would  be  of  incalculable  value  to 
us  as  a  state.  I  know  that  these  and 
kindred  questions  interest  wonderfully  all 
the  gentlemen  who  come  to  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  I  am  sure  many  of  them  would 
gladly  take  from  their  vacation  days, 
highly  prized  as  they  are,  time  for  such 
a  conference  as  I  have  suggested.  We,  as 
a  state,  cannot  afford  to  overlook  any 
measure  which  shall  help  to  make  their 
stay  here  more  enjoyable,  or  which  shall 
help  to  show  our  appreciation  of  the  great 
benefits  which  accrue  to  our  state  from 
their  presence  with  us. 


NEW  IPSWICH, 

AUGUST  28,  1900. 


AT   NEW   IPSWICH. 

In  the  speeches  which  I  have  made  dur- 
ing Old  Home  Week  I  have  tried  to  em- 
body practical  and  helpful  suggestions  to 
the  people  of  New  Hampshire.  I  have 
tried  to  avoid  any  attempt  at  oratory  or 
bombast;  and  what  I  propose  to  say  to 
you  to-day  will  be  a  continuance  in  this 
line.  I  have  adopted  for  my  subject  to- 
day "  The  Home,"  which  is,  as  has  been 
often  said,  "  the  backbone  of  our  republic," 
and  anything  which  we  can  do  to  beautify 
and  build  up  the  home  and  make  it  at- 
tractive to  our  children,  and  a  place  to  be 
remembered,  is  of  benefit  not  only  to  the 
family  but  to  the  state  and  nation. 

I  am  going  to  imagine  myself  looking 
about  for  a  country  home.  This  is  what 
I  would  do.  The  first  question  would  be 
as  to  location,  and  I  would  select  it  near 
some  lake,  pond,  or  river.  No  country 


100     OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

home  is  complete  without  a  bit  of  water 
in  the  neighborhood.  The  child  who 
grows  up  without  it  has  one  side  of  his 
nature  undeveloped.  It  must  also  be  in  a 
rolling  country,  not  flat.  It  must  have  a 
high  hill  or  a  mountain  in  the  background, 
for  its  mental  and  moral  effect.  I  would 
not  want  to  live  where  I  could  look  out 
over  all  the  world  and  look  down  upon 
everything.  You  must  have  something  to 
look  up  to,  something  to  measure  things 
by,  a  standard  as  it  were, — you  must  have 
something  to  hide  the  beyond,  to  intro- 
duce an  element  of  doubt  and  mystery  in 
the  mind.  We  always  want  to  know  what 
the  future  has  in  store,  what  is  just  behind, 
beyond  the  hill,  and  this  is  especially  true 
of  children.  To  them  the  hill  or  mountain 
covers  the  mysteries  of  the  wide  world,  it 
typifies  the  veil  which  hides  their  mature 
life,  and  it  is  the  Rubicon  which  they  ex- 
pect to  cross  when  they  leave  their  father's 
house  and  plunge  into  the  thick  of  the 
battle  of  life.  It  must  be  in  a  wooded 


AT  NEW  IPSWICH.  IOI 

country  with  frequent  patches  and  belts 
of  forest,  and  by  forest  I  mean  the  ever- 
green trees.  Somehow  or  other  hard 
woods  never  seem  to  me  to  be  natural  or 
to  constitute  a  forest.  They  always  seem 
to  have  been  planted  by  man  and  to  be 
for  utilitarian  purposes.  There  are,  of 
course,  beautiful  hard  woods,  but  they  do 
not  appeal  to  me  as  do  the  pine,  the  fir, 
the  spruce,  and  the  hemlock. 

Now,  having  made  a  selection  of  a  loca- 
tion, let  us  see  about  the  house.  It  must 
set  well  back  from  the  street.  In  other 
words,  there  must  be  a  goodly  piece  of 
land,  and  I  would  go  where  land  was 
cheap  enough  to  have  a  good  sized  lot, 
even  if  I  had  to  go  farther  and  sacrifice 
some  other  things.  It  must  be  simple  in 
its  architecture,  having  few  and  strong 
lines,  and  not  a  jumble  of  roofs,  breaks, 
and  corners.  If  the  house  were  in  a  con- 
siderable village  or  town  I  would  follow 
somewhat  the  lines  of  the  old  Portsmouth 
houses,  but  if  it  were  to  be  in  the  open 


102     OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

country  or  on  a  village  street,  I  would  get 
it  more  on  the  ground,  spread  it  out,  get 
it  closer  to  the  earth.  I  would  build  a 
hip  or  gambrel  roof,  or  a  flat  one  like  the 
Portsmouth  houses,  and  I  would  have 
wide,  hospitable  looking  doors.  I  would 
be  very  generous  with  my  piazzas  but  very 
careful  as  to  where  I  put  them.  They 
must  not  interfere  with  the  scheme  of  the 
house,  nor  shut  off  light  from  the  interior, 
for  piazzas  are  really  no  part  of  a  house. 
They  are  merely  excrescences  tacked  on 
for  our  convenience. 

I  much  prefer  open  piazzas,  or  terraces, 
preferably  terraces,  around  the  house.  Of 
course  they  are  not  suitable  for  bad 
weather,  and  they  do  not  keep  off  the 
sun ;  but  they  are  delightful  at  evening, 
and  give  to  the  house  an  appearance  of 
solidity  and  an  air  of  special  dignity. 
Such  terraces  should  generally  be  made 
of  brick,  with  a  brick  or  stone  wall  around 
them,  and  perhaps  be  surrounded  by  a 
hedge  or  climbing  vines.  And,  speaking 


AT  NEW  IPS WICH.  103 

of  vines,  I  do  not  think  that  we  Americans 
fully  appreciate  their  value,  especially  here 
in  New  England.  The  English  people 
use  them  to  a  great  extent,  and  they  add 
much  of  beauty  and  interest  to  the  com- 
munity. It  is  not  difficult  or  expensive 
to  plant  vines  along  our  walls  and  fences 
and  against  our  houses,  and  in  a  few  years 
the  results  obtained  are  magical.  One  of 
the  best  vines  for  this  purpose  is  the  Eng- 
lish ivy,  which  is  a  very  hardy  plant.  The 
woodbine  is  common  in  New  England, 
and  lends  itself  readily  to  such  purposes. 
The  Virginia  creeper  also  is  well  suited  to 
our  needs,  especially  to  stone  work.  I 
myself  have  a  great  partiality  for  climbing 
roses,  and  I  particularly  like  to  see  a  wild 
riot  of  them  sweeping  up  over  the  front 
door  or  all  around  the  front  porch  or 
stoop.  As  I  have  before  said,  I  would 
put  the  house  well  back  from  the  street, 
and  I  would  pay  a  good  deal  of  attention 
to  the  road  or  pathway  by  which  the  house 
is  approached,  giving  it  graceful  curves, 


104     OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

making  if  possible  a  vista  of  trees  or 
shrubs  through  which  glimpses  of  the 
house  could  be  seen,  providing,  of  course, 
that  the  lot  was  large  enough  for  such 
purpose. 

I  would  like  to  say  a  few  words  on  the 
subject  of  trees.  Nothing  is  so  beautiful 
in  nature  to  me  as  a  grand  and  stately 
tree.  My  favorite  is  our  American  elm, 
with  its  strong,  dignified  trunk,  its  wide- 
spreading,  noble  top.  It  is  hardy,  bold, 
and  self-reliant,  well  suited  to  our  climate 
and  our  scenery;  and  whether  it  borders 
the  village  street  or  dots  the  meadow  it  is 
equally  beautiful.  The  next  tree  which  I 
favor  is  our  sugar  maple.  Shapely,  rapid- 
growing,  magnificent  in  its  foliage,  it  seems 
to  thrive  best  in  New  England  and  in  the 
Middle  states.  The  Norway  maple  is 
also  well  suited  for  our  purposes.  A 
group  of  sugar  maples  upon  a  lawn  is 
particularly  charming.  If  one  wishes  to 
see  the  elm  and  the  maple  in  their  most 
beautiful  and  attractive  shape  and  group- 


AT  NEW  IPSWICH.  105 

ing,  he  has  only  to  come  to  my  native  city 
of  Concord,  where  these  noble  trees  arch 
over  our  roadways,  forming  long  vistas 
of  shade,  reminding  one  of  some  gothic 
cathedral.  I  should  like  very  much  to  see 
a  more  common  use  made  of  the  tulip 
tree,  which  is  well  suited  to  our  climate 
and  is  rapid-growing,  and  I  think  the 
magnolia  might  also  be  used  more  gen- 
erally in  New  Hampshire.  I  am  very 
partial  to  the  old  Lombardy  poplar,  with 
its  slender,  graceful,  spire-like  form  point- 
ing heavenward.  A  row  of  these  at  the 
rear  of  a  lot  is  very  effective  against  the 
sky-line.  Fine  effects  can  be  produced 
by  the  use  of  many  of  our  fruit  trees,  such 
as  the  apple,  the  peach,  and  the  cherry, 
particularly  in  the  spring  when  they  are  in 
bloom.  We  have  not  given  enough  atten- 
tion to  the  white  birch,  the  "  lady  of  the 
woods,"  so-called.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
effective  trees  for  a  lawn  imaginable,  par- 
ticularly when  you  can  put  it  against  a 
background  of  some  dark  green  trees  or 


IO6     OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

shrubs.  A  cluster  of  these  white  birches 
produce  a  fine  effect.  I  came  very  near 
forgetting  my  old  and  dear  friend,  the 
lilac  bush.  You  get  more  real  satisfaction 
out  of  an  old  purple  lilac  in  the  early  sum- 
mer than  out  of  any  other  of  our  small 
trees  or  shrubs.  There  is  something 
strengthening  and  invigorating  about  the 
odor  of  the  lilac,  and  something  that 
carries  you  back  to  your  boyhood. 

I  would  be  very  careful  as  to  the  color 
of  the  paint  on  my  house.  I  should  either 
stain  it  some  soft  dark  color,  somewhat  on 
the  reds  or  browns,  or  a  cool  gray ;  or  else 
I  should  boldly  adopt  the  old  red  paint,  of 
course  with  white  trimmings,  which  you 
see  occasionally  upon  one  of  our  old  farm- 
houses. I  think  a  good  deal  is  to  be  said 
in  favor  of  a  white  house  with  green  blinds, 
so  peculiar  to  New  England.  It  looks 
very  attractive  and  cool  among  the  deep 
greens  of  the  country;  and  if  one  is  in 
doubt  what  color  to  use  it  is  always  safe, 
and  is,  next  to  the  dark  red,  the  most  last- 


AT  NEW  IPSWICH.  IO7 

ing  and  enduring  paint  you  can  put  on. 
Vines  and  climbing  roses  are  beautifully 
set  off  against  a  white  house.  The  situa- 
tion and  surroundings  of  the  house  have 
much  to  do,  of  course,  with  the  color  of 
the  paint. 

It  has  become  quite  the  custom  to  do 
away  entirely  with  fences  ;  and  in  many  of 
our  suburban  cities  and  small  towns  fences 
are  now  unknown.  The  primary  object  of 
the  fence  was  to  mark  division  lines  and  to 
keep  out  stray  animals  ;  but  now  that  cows 
are  always  enclosed  and  not  allowed  to 
wander  about,  the  object  of  the  fence  is 
largely  done  away  with.  I  am  going,  how- 
ever, to  advocate  the  return,  not  to  a  fence, 
but  to  some  kind  of  a  divisional  line,  or 
separation  of  place  and  lots,  not  for  the 
purpose  of  marking  divisions,  and  not  to 
keep  out  cows,  and  not  because  I  believe 
in  being  exclusive,  but  I  do  believe  that 
every  man  is  entitled  to  a  little  privacy  on 
his  own  home.  I  think  he  wants  to  be 
able  to  wander  about  and  pick  his  flowers, 


IO8     OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

and  sit  out  on  his  lawn  without  being  sub- 
jected to  the  inspection  of  the  whole  world. 
In  other  words,  I  think  a  little  privacy  is  a 
good  thing  for  everybody,  and  that  we  are 
largely  doing  away  with  it  in  our  good 
democratic  country.  "There  is  a  same- 
ness about  the  uninterrupted  stretch  of 
lawn  with  here  and  there  a  house  set  down 
upon  it  very  tiring  to  the  eye.  It  is  human 
nature  to  desire  to  see  things  which  are 
half  hidden."  The  English  people  are 
very  fond  of  their  homes  and  of  their  pri- 
vacy. They  surround  their  places,  no 
matter  how  small,  with  a  wall  which  is  dif- 
ficult to  look  over.  I  do  not  know  that  I 
am  in  favor  of  carrying  it  so  far  as  the 
English  do,  but  I  certainly  favor  a  modified 
form.  This  wall  is  built  of  stone  with  a 
fence  covered  with  vines  or  a  hedge  on  top 
of  it,  or  else  it  is  built  of  brick.  Frequently 
they  use  a  high  hedge,  which  of  course 
answers  the  same  purpose,  and  is,  perhaps, 
more  beautiful.  I  advocate  a  more  general 
use  of  these  hedges,  walls,  and  evergreen 


AT  NEW  IPSWICH.  1 09 

screens.  They  serve  another  purpose  be- 
sides that  of  privacy — they  form  an  effec- 
tive background  against  which  to  train 
shrubs  and  trees,  and  along  which  to  plant 
flower  gardens,  and  are  the  greatest  addi- 
tion to  the  landscape.  Walls  are  worth 
having  for  their  own  intrinsic  beauty,  and 
not  simply  because  they  shut  off  one's  place 
from  the  public  gaze.  A  very  pretty  effect 
can  also  be  obtained  by  wire  lattice-work, 
covered  with  vines.  "A  fruit  tree  in  bloom, 
just  showing  over  the  top  of  the  garden 
wall,  the  breath  of  the  lilac  wafted  from 
behind  the  hedge,  or  a  short  vista  through 
the  garden  gate  of  a  winding  path  and  red 
brick  walls  against  which  a  row  of  holly- 
hocks are  peacefully  blooming,  make  an 
exquisite  picture." 

I  would  lay  out  somewhere  at  the  rear 
of  the  place,  and  shut  off  from  the  public 
view,  by  a  hedge  or  a  wall  where  it  is  abso- 
lutely secluded  and  quiet  and  peaceful,  an 
old-fashioned  garden,  with  gravel  paths, 
and  either  a  box  border  or  a  turf  border 


110     OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

around  the  beds.  What  could  be  more 
restful  and  more  peaceful  than  one  of  those 
old  colonial  gardens  way  back  behind  one 
of  our  old  New  England  homes?  I  would 
have  it,  if  possible,  sunk  a  little  below  the 
general  level  of  the  surrounding  ground,  or 
else  I  would  have  it  on  a  terrace,  with 
hedges  or  currant  bushes  about  it.  Per- 
haps at  the  corners  I  would  have  some 
modest  sized  tree ;  and  I  would  have  seats, 
or  a  summer-house  where  one  could  rest 
and  enjoy  the  odor  of  the  flowers.  A 
beautiful  place  for  a  garden  is  along  the 
edge  of  a  piece  of  woods,  if  such  a  place  is 
obtainable,  and  of  course,  if  it  is  possible 
to  get  it  near  a  running  brook,  and  throw  a 
rustic  bridge  into  the  picture,  it  is  ideal.  I 
would  plant  my  garden  with  phlox,  holly- 
hocks, larkspurs,  roses,  sunflowers,  black- 
eyed  Susans,  and  I  would  not  forget  the  nas- 
turtiums, asters,  pinks,  forget-me-nots,  and 
pansies ;  I  would  have  great  beds  of  bego- 
nias, petunias,  mignonette,  and  poppies; 
and  I  would  especially  have  a  bed  of  spear- 


AT  NEW  /PS WICH.  Ill 

ment,  and  some  of  the  other  old-fashioned 
herbs.  This  garden  is,  of  course,  the  par- 
ticular province  of  the  housewife  ;  but  it  is 
a  splendid  place  to  which  a  busy,  careworn 
man  may  retire,  and  it  is  a  particularly  de- 
lightful place  in  which  to  bring  up  children. 
The  odor  of  those  flowers  will  last  through 
a  lifetime,  and  is  never  forgotten. 

In  planning  my  home,  I  would  have  the 
children  in  mind.  The  flower  garden 
would  be  partially  for  them,  and  of 
course  there  should  be  a  vegetable  garden, 
where  they  could  dig  and  hoe  and  plant. 
I  should  put  up  a  martin-house,  and  try  to 
tempt  those  beautiful  warblers  to  make 
their  home  with  me.  I  should  also  put 
dove-cotes  in  the  barn  ;  and  it  is  a  splendid 
idea  to  try  to  interest  the  children  in  bees, 
and  in  all  sorts  of  birds  and  animals.  It 
teaches  them  to  be  kind,  careful,  and  atten- 
tive, and  forms  the  habit  of  observation. 

Perhaps  I  have  said  enough  on  the  sub- 
ject of  what  I  would  do  if  I  should  build 
an  ideal  home.  I  might  go  on  and  amplify 


112     OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

it  indefinitely,  and  others  could  make  sug- 
gestions of  great  value.  Of  course  each 
one  has  his  own  idea  of  what  a  home 
should  be;  but  I  am  sure  many  of 
these  suggestions  will  appeal  to  you  all. 
Just  one  or  two  points  more  and  I  am  done. 
I  feel  that  our  New  England  towns  and 
villages  might  be  very  much  more  attrac- 
tive and  furnish  pleasure  and  amusement 
to  their  own  people  and  to  the  "  stranger 
within  their  gates,"  if  they  would  pay  more 
attention  to  the  beauty  spots  which  are 
about  them,  frequently  unknown  and  un- 
cared  for.  There  is  hardly  a  New  Eng- 
land town  or  village  or  city  which  is  not 
surrounded  by,  or  has  not  in  its  neighbor- 
hood, little  patches  of  forest,  little  strips 
of  park-like  country  or  some  eminence  or 
cliff  from  which  a  grand  view  could  be  ob- 
tained, or  some  pond  or  lake  attractive  to 
the  eye.  My  plan  is  to  lay  out  winding 
paths  to  these  places.  It  costs  scarcely 
anything  to  mark  and  lay  out  such  paths, 
or  to  keep  them  in  repair;  and  if  the  en- 


AT  NEW  IPS WICH.  113 

trances  to  them  were  marked  in  some  way 
and  what  is  to  be  seen  at  the  end  of  them 
were  pointed  out,  thousands  would  be 
tempted  and  drawn  into  these  woodland 
recesses,  and  would  be  benefited  and  up- 
lifted, not  only  by  the  physical  exercise 
obtained,  but  by  that  better  hopefulness  of 
life  which  is  inspired  by  close  communion 
with  Nature.  We  should  do  all  we  can  to 
tempt  people  into  the  woods  and  fields,  and 
to  get  them  out  of  themselves  and  away 
from  the  cares  and  troubles  and  worries  of 
every-day  life.  If  we  could  do  more  of  this 
we  should  reduce  the  population  of  our 
asylums  and  sanitariums. 

People  in  the  country  have  a  mistaken 
notion  that  they  must  cut  away  the  rough 
growing  trees  and  shrubs  along  the  road- 
side ;  that  the  road  looks  better  cleared 
up  in  this  way.  They  are  probably  un- 
aware that  our  large  cities  are  trying  in 
their  parks  to  produce  just  this  effect  of 
wildness  and  roughness  by  planting  the 
wild  bushes  that  the  country  people  are 


114     OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

destroying.  Nothing  adds  so  much  to  the 
beauty  of  the  road  as  these  green  walls  of 
rough  variegated  bushes  and  plants  along 
the  roadside.  They  should  be  cut  just  far 
enough  to  leave  the  road-bed  and  a  gutter 
for  proper  drainage,  otherwise  leave  them 
intact,  except  here  and  there  where  you 
want  to  make  a  vista  or  a  view.  The  ideal 
road  should  be,  first  a  patch  of  forest,  then 
a  wild  tangle  of  roadside  growth,  then 
an  open  piece  of  field  or  meadow  land, 
then  the  crossing  of  a  brook,  or  the  skirt- 
ing of  a  pond,  thus  giving  variety  of 
scenery  and  forming  a  restful  change  to 
the  eye. 

The  people  of  every  town  should  be 
banded  together  to  do  away  with  roadside 
advertising.  An  effort  should  be  made  to 
prohibit  it  through  the  legislature.  These 
great  advertisements  of  —  -  sarsaparilla, 
or  somebody's  cherry  pectoral  that  stare 
you  in  the  face  from  every  barn  and  fence 
and  which  disfigure  every  rock,  are  an 
outrage  and  reproach.  It  is  simply  our 


AT  NEW  IPSWICH.  115 

good-nature  that  permits  it.  The  few  dol- 
lars which  the  farmer  gets  for  allowing 
such  advertisements  on  his  buildings  are 
more  than  counterbalanced  by  injury  to 
the  landscape,  which  is  after  all  a  more 
valuable  asset  to  him  than  the  small 
amount  he  gets  from  the  advertising.  If 
the  people  of  a  town  choose  to  do  it  they 
could  make  it  exceedingly  unpleasant  for 
any  man  who  comes  to  decorate  their 
fences  and  buildings  in  this  manner.  I 
would  make  the  air  very  uncongenial,  and 
I  believe  that  a  determined  effort  ought  to 
be  started,  not  only  to  prevent  the  further 
disfigurement  of  our  state,  but  to  remove 
those  advertisements  which  are  already  in 
existence. 

I  fear  that  I  have  overstepped  the 
bounds  of  this  rambling  speech ;  but  it 
may  possibly  give  some  suggestion  to 
those  in  search  of  a  home,  or  it  may  be 
of  some  slight  value  to  those  who  have 
homes  in  which  there  are  possibilities  for 
change  and  improvement.  If  any  sugges- 


Il6     OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

tion  of  mine  shall  be  of  benefit  to  our 
people,  or  our  state,  I  shall  be  amply  sat- 
isfied. 

I  thank  you  all  for  the  very  generous 
reception  which  you  have  given  me,  and  I 
wish  to  here  testify  to  the  abundant  hos- 
pitality with  which  I  have  always  been 
treated  by  the  people  of  the  state  of  New 
Hampshire. 


PORTLAND,  MAINE, 


AUGUST  7,  1900. 


AT   PORTLAND,    MAINE. 

I  take  the  greatest  possible  pleasure  in 
being  present  on  this  occasion.  Imitation 
is  said  to  be  the  sincerest  flattery,  and 
your  adoption  of  the  Old  Home  Week 
plan  gratified  me  very  much.  I  would 
rather  have  Maine  adopt  it  than  any  other 
state. 

I  want  to  tell  you  a  little  about  its  suc- 
cess in  my  own  state.  You  know  that  it 
was  launched  last  year.  We  formed  our 
state  organization,  and  by  a  little  mission- 
ary work,  local  organizations  were  started 
all  over  the  state.  At  first  I  was  some- 
what fearful  as  to  the  outcome.  I  did  not 
know  how  the  idea  would  strike  our  peo- 
ple, but  my  fears  were  soon  dispelled. 
From  one  end  of  the  state  to  the  other  it 
was  received  with  enthusiasm.  It  needed 
little  pushing  after  the  first  start  was  made. 
The  grange  was  very  helpful  in  the  work, 


120     OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

and  took  an  active  interest.  We  did  our 
preliminary  work  through  the  newspapers, 
and  by  means  of  circulars,  letters,  pins, 
buttons,  stamps,  and  all  sorts  of  devices — 
much  as  you  have  done  it  here.  We  had 
an  immense  correspondence  with  people 
out  of  the  state — old  residents  and  would- 
be  residents — and  it  kept  our  committee 
very  busy  for  a  while.  When  the  week 
arrived  we  ushered  it  in  with  bonfires  and 
beacon  lights  on  mountain  peaks  and  high 
hills — flashing  a  welcome  from  Coos  to 
the  sea.  On  Sunday  the  pulpits  of  many 
churches  were  occupied  by  ministers  who 
had  learned  their  first  lessons  within  sound 
of  the  village  church  bell,  and  many  words 
of  value  were  uttered  on  that  day. 

On  Monday  the  celebration  began  in 
earnest  all  over  the  state,  and  kept  on 
until  the  close  of  the  week.  All  doors 
were  open,  all  hearts  were  glad.  Hos- 
pitality was  infectious.  Some  towns  cele- 
brated for  two  or  three  days.  Personally, 
I  started  in  on  Saturday  morning  and  kept 


A  T  FOR  TLAND,  MAINE.  121 

it  up  till  the  next  Saturday,  visiting  some 
town  or  city  every  day,  and  it  was  one  of 
the  happiest  weeks  of  my  life — for  every 
one  was  happy  about  me.  On  every  hand 
friend  greeted  friend — old  acquaintances 
grasped  each  other  by  the  hand — old 
haunts  were  revisited,  old  memories  re- 
vived. 

In  Concord  we  had  our  main  celebra- 
tion, as  you  are  having  yours  here  in 
Portland  to-day,  and  it  was  an  unqualified 
success.  There  was  a  magnificent  pro- 
cession, excellent  speeches,  abundance  of 
music,  and  fireworks  closed  a  day  replete 
with  enjoyment. 

Maine  and  New  Hampshire  may  well 
make  common  cause  of  bringing  the  old 
homes  to  the  attention  of  the  wanderers 
who  have  gone  away  upon  quests  from 
which  a  great  majority  have  not  come 
back.  These  two  states  have  trained  their 
boys  and  girls  along  the  same  true  lines, 
and  have  given  most  generously  toward 
the  upbuilding  of  newer  but  now  wealthier 


122     OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

and  more  powerful  commonwealths.  Each 
of  these  two  states  has  seen  the  names  of 
many  of  its  sons  enrolled  upon  the  scroll 
which  bears  the  record  of  great  usefulness 
and  grand  achievement  in  the  service  of 
the  nation.  New  Hampshire  sent  Sal- 
mon P.  Chase  to  Ohio  and  saw  him  chief 
justice  of  one  of  the  greatest  judicial 
bodies  on  earth,  the  supreme  court  of 
the  United  States ;  Illinois  allured  from 
Maine,  and  the  nation  took  from  Illinois, 
a  most  worthy  successor  to  the  long  line 
of  eminent  jurists,  Chief  Justice  Melville  W. 
Fuller,  your  honored  guest.  New  Hamp- 
shire gave  to  Michigan  that  great  senator, 
ambassador,  and  cabinet  officer,  Lewis 
Cass;  Maine  furnished  Illinois  with  that 
noted  congressman,  governor,  and  embas- 
sador,  Elihu  B.  Washburne. 

Zachariah  Chandler,  a  son  of  New 
Hampshire,  sat  \\  President  Grant's  cabi- 
net with  Lot  M.  Morrill,  a  son  of  Maine. 
We  are  proud  of  the  fact  that  Henry 
Wilson,  of  humble  New  Hampshire  birth, 


AT  PORTLAND,   MAINE.  123 

became  vice-president  of  the  United 
States ;  Hannibal  Hamlin  brought  honor 
to  your  state  in  the  same  high  office.  It 
was  a  son  of  my  state,  John  A.  Dix,  who, 
with  the  fortitude  of  a  Spartan  general, 
gave  the  order:  "  If  any  man  attempts  to 
haul  down  the  American  flag,  shoot  him 
on  the  spot."  With  a  chivalry  worthy  of 
Sir  Philip  Sidney,  your  soldier-scholar, 
Gen.  Joshua  L.  Chamberlin,  commanded 
his  soldiers  to  present  arms  before  their 
vanquished  foe  at  Appomattox.  Under 
the  secretaryship  of  William  E.  Chandler, 
a  son  of  New  Hampshire,  the  United 
States  navy  took  on  new  strength  ;  it  won 
imperishable  glory  under  Secretary  John 
D.  Long,  a  son  of  Maine.  Our  Daniel 
Webster  was  the  greatest  expounder  of 
constitutional  law ;  the  greatest  expounder 
of  parliamentary  law  is  your  Thomas  B. 
Reed.  New  Hampshire  gave  the  nation 
a  president,  Franklin  Pierce,  her  son ; 
Maine  offered  the  nation  the  peer  of  all 
the  chief  magistrates,  her  adopted  son, 
James  G.  Elaine. 


124    OLD  H(>ME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

These  two  states  possess,  in  a  remarka- 
ble degree,  similar  attractiveness  of  sea- 
shore and  mountain,  of  field  and  forest, 
which  draws  hither  an  annually  increas- 
ing throng,  who  find  rest,  and  health, 
and  pleasure  which  no  other  sections 
of  our  great  and  resourceful  country 
afford  in  quite  such  generous  meas- 
ure. I  know  we  share  this  monopoly 
of  superlative  scenic  attractiveness,  and  I 
am  quite  sure  that  we  have  our  common 
needs  as  well.  I  suppose  the  old  homes 
of  the  Pine  Tree  state,  no  less  than  those 
of  our  own  granite  hills,  need  the  bright- 
ening presence  of  the  absent  children 
much  oftener  than  it  is  afforded  by  the 
ordinary  routine  of  vacation  visiting.  I 
presume  the  prosperity  of  your  villages, 
towns,  and  cities  is  not  so  abundant,  or 
the  generosity  of  your  present  wealthy 
citizens  so  all-encompassing,  that  you 
would  refuse  richer  endowments  for  wor- 
thy educational  institutions;  more  books 
for  the  public  libraries  already  built,  and 


AT  PORTLAND,   MAINE.  125 

more  libraries  in  the  places  which  are 
hungry  for  them,  and  have  them  not; 
more  money  for  roads  and  village  im- 
provement, and  public  buildings  than  the 
taxpayer  can  furnish  without  being 
over-burdened.  Your  emigrant  sons  and 
daughters  would  find  the  same  enjoy- 
ment in  reoccupying  the  ancestral  acres 
for  vacation  or  permanent  homes,  as 
would  those  of  my  state,  if  once  the  im- 
pulse to  return  could  be  created.  In  all 
these  ways,  you  of  Maine  and  we  of  New 
Hampshire  have  reason  to  join  hands  in 
efforts  to  make  the  home  call  so  loud  and 
so  cheery  and  so  earnest,  that  it  will  be 
heard  in  the  remotest  haunts  of  the  men 
and  women  whose  sweetest  memories 
cluster  about  some  old  farmhouse,  or 
some  village  home,  off  here  in  our  corner 
of  New  England.  The  public  spirit,  the 
enterprise,  and  the  hospitality  of  your 
city  are  proverbial  throughout  the  land, 
but  Portland  has  certainly  surpassed  all 
former  efforts,  and  set  several  notches 


126    OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

higher  the  standard  of  successful  endeavor 
in  the  line  of  a  great  public  festival,  by 
planning  so  generously,  and  carrying  out 
so  perfectly,  her  first  Old  Home  Day. 

It  is  an  old  story  to  you  all,  how  nearly 
New  Hampshire's  first  Old  Home  Week, 
last  year,  met  all  expectations,  but  I  am 
going  to  trespass  on  your  time  just  a 
little  longer,  and  name  some  of  its  results. 
In  the  first  place,  the  message  of  invita- 
tion, with  its  assurance  of  a  hearty  wel- 
come, was  far-reaching.  It  was  heard  in 
the  miner's  or  cowboy's  camp  of  the  far 
West,  the  cabin  of  the  sailor,  and  the 
tent  of  the  soldier,  as  surely  as  in  the 
office  of  the  banker  in  Wall  street,  the 
study  of  the  college  president,  the  studio 
of  the  artist,  or  the  sanctum  of  the  editor 
— and  the  responses  which  came  back  to 
loved  ones  at  home,  if  any  remained,  and 
to  some  friend  or  Old  Home  Week  official, 
if  all  of  kindred  were  gone,  were  from  the 
heart. 

The  message  was  not  only  heard    and 


A  T  FOR  TLA  ND,  MAINE  127 

answered  by  words  of  thankfulness,  but  it 
brought  the  welcome  presence  of  son  or 
daughter,  of  brother  or  sister,  to  the  old 
hearthstone,  when  no  other  summons  had 
been  heeded  in  years.  I  have  in  mind 
one  instance  of  peculiar  interest,  where 
the  brother,  who  had  gone  to  the  shores 
of  the  Pacific  as  a  "  Forty-niner,"  came 
back  for  the  first  time  as  a  "  Ninety-niner," 
in  Old  Home  Week,  never  to  go  away 
again  from  the  peaceful  fireside  on  the 
Atlantic's  silvery  sands.  We  say  ten 
thousand  people  heard  our  Old  Home 
Week  call  last  year,  but  we  make  no 
account,  in  such  reckoning,  of  the  many 
times  ten  thousand  of  our  own  people 
whose  lives  were  brightened,  and  whose 
hearts  were  gladdened,  by  the  joyful 
home-comings  of  so  many  absent  loved 
ones. 

It  is  early  yet  to  count  our  gain.  We 
know  of  quick  Yankee  trading  done  in 
Old  Home  Week,  where!  y  the  possession 
of  homesteads  reverted  10  former  occu- 


128     OLD  HOME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

pants,  and  communities  were  gainers 
because  the  wealth,  and  culture,  and  in- 
fluence of  success  achieved  in  distant 
fields  of  effort  were  thus  transferred  to 
places  which  needed  them  sadly.  We 
know  of  public  improvements  made  upon 
the  spur  of  Old  Home  interest  and  enthu- 
siasm. We  have  seen  enduring  memorials 
set  upon  spots  associated  with  lives  or 
events  in  which  great  pride  is  taken,  be- 
cause Old  Home  Week  has  created  a  new 
or  more  concentrated  interest  in  local  his- 
tory. If  you  will  go  with  me  to  the  quiet 
village  street  of  Boscawen,  I  will  point  out 
to  you,  as  one  result  of  its  first  Old  Home 
Day,  a  handsome  bronze  tablet  with  this 
inscription  : 

Birthplace  of 

WILLIAM  PITT  FESSENDEN. 
Born  Oct.  6,  A.  D.  1806. 

United  States  Senator 

From  Maine  for  Thirteen  Years. 

Secretary  of  U.  S.  Treasury, 

1864-1865, 
Erected  by  the  Town  of  Boscawen. 


AT  PORTLAND,  MAINE.  129 

And  I  will  show  you,  within  a  stone's 
throw  of  it,  other  like  memorials,  showing 
where  General  Dix  was  born,  where 
Daniel  Webster's  first  law  office  stood, 
and  other  sites  of  local  importance  marked 
in  the  same  generous  way. 

Our  literature  about  New  Hampshire 
was  greatly  enriched  by  the  contributions 
of  Old  Home  Day  orators  and  poets. 
The  addresses,  sketches,  verses,  and  songs 
which  the  occasion  inspired,  covering,  as 
they  did,  the  range  of  history,  romance, 
love,  and  home,  will  have  a  lasting  influ- 
ence for  good. 

It  certainly  has  done  the  state  no  harm 
to  "  round  up,"  as  the  cowboys  say,  the 
present  day  product  of  her  homes,  and 
compare  the  record  which  our  boys  and 
girls  are  making  to-day  with  that  which 
inspired  the  saying  of  long  ago,  that  the 
Old  Man  of  the  Mountain  meant,  "  Men 
made  here."  The  Old  Home  roll-call 
has  shown  that  New  Hampshire's  emi- 
grants, to-day,  are  leaders  in  the  world  as 


130    OLD  I/O  ME    WEEK  ADDRESSES. 

truly  as  were  ever  the  great  sons  whose 
names  shine  so  brightly  on  history's  page. 
It  has  shown  that  we  could  summon  a 
regiment  of  regulation  size  from  the  sons 
of  New  Hampshire  who  are  to-day 
prominent  in  states  and  countries  other 
than  that  to  which  they  owe  the  allegi- 
ance of  birth ;  that  we  could  pick  its 
commander  from  three  major-generals  in 
the  armies  of  the  republic ;  a  chaplain 
from  some  of  the  greatest  pulpits  or 
most  noted  college  chairs  of  the  country; 
a  surgeon  from  a  full  score  whose  skill  is 
famed  on  two  continents ;  nurses  from 
some  of  the  most  gifted  women  of  this 
generation ;  and  half  a  hundred  men  and 
women  of  New  Hampshire  birth  or  ances- 
try who  could  furnish  the  sinews  of  war 
to  the  tune  of  as  many  millions  without 
mortgaging  their  palatial  homes  in  Brook- 
line,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Chicago. 
All  this,  and  more,  has  been  shown  by 
New  Hampshire's  first  Old  Home  Week, 
and  I  expect  the  second,  which  will  be 


AT  PORTLAND,  MAINE.  131 

celebrated  next  week  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  our  state,  will  add 
greatly  to  the  score.  May  Maine  be  as 
abundantly  blessed  in  her  appeal  to  her 
absent  ones,  "  lest  they  forget." 


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